Dr.

Hor Sivmey
The quality !
A product's ability to satisfy its users
Several components of food quality:

Security

Healthy

Taste, Organopletic quality

Service
What is sensory analysis: perceiving
1
and measuring

➢ Sensory evaluation is defined as:

“a scientific method used to evoke, measure, analyze and interpret reactions

to those characteristics of foods and materials as they are perceived by the
senses of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing”

Appearance Odor Mouth-feel Touch Sound

Perception of the organoleptic quality
 What is sensory analysis: perceiving
and measuring
Some definition (ISO)

✓ Odor: release of substances

volatile perceived by (direct nasal pathway)

✓ Aroma: perceived by the olfactive organ through the

retro-nasal pathway during degustation.

Food in the Chewing pathway

expulsion of volatile olfactory cavity
mouth + saliva compounds from the matrix Retro-nasal

✓ Taste/Flavor: sensations perceived by the

taste organ when stimulated by certain soluble
substances.
What is sensory analysis: perceiving
and measuring
Some definition (ISO)
✓ Flavor: complex set of olfactory and gustatory sensations perceived
during consumption.

Odor

Aroma Flavor Taste

✓ Astringent : qualifies the complex sensation resulting

from the contraction of the surface of the mucous
membranes of the mouth, produced by substances
such as the tannins of the persimmon, the wine, ...
Sensory analysis: perceiving and
measuring
 What is sensory analysis: perceiving
and measuring
Example of some tastes:

▪ Sour: tartaric or citric acid Lemon, orange,

coca cola

▪ Bitter: caffeine or quinine hydrochloride

Endive, dark chocolate, coffee

▪ Salty: sodium chloride, Chips

▪ Sweet: sucrose Candy

Detection and recognition thresholds depend on dietary habits

and training.
What is sensory analysis: perceiving
and measuring

Examples of
fragrant
substances
What is sensory analysis: perceiving
and measuring

✓ A scientific method!

✓ The objective: to define a relationship between

the stimulus and the sensory perception

✓ Not measurable by other methods

✓ There is no standard observer.

What is sensory analysis: perceiving
and measuring
What is its purpose?

✓ Research and development (formulation,

comparison, new product development, branding ...)
✓ Relating qualitative and quantitative information
✓ Quality control
✓ Marketing / Consumer preference
✓ Research direction
 What is sensory analysis: perceiving
and measuring
Physiology of perception
✓ A FOOD emits different information perceived by the sensory organs:
these are the STIMULI
✓ Each sensory organ transforms a stimulus into a NERVOUS INFLUX which is
propagated by the corresponding sensory nerve to be interpreted by the
BRAIN
What is sensory analysis: perceiving
and measuring
Sensory response
The sensory response is influenced by:

✓ Physiological factors:
- Agueusia, ...
- Persistence

✓ Psychological factors:
- A priori: rose-tinted yogurt, colored white wine,
brand ...
- Nearby's influence: grimace
- Order of presentation of samples (1st product)
- Character
- Information about the study
What is sensory analysis: perceiving
and measuring
Sensory response
It is an interaction between the experimenter and the subject

Question

Stimulus
Experimenter Sensorial subject

Answer

THE QUESTION IS IMPORTANT IN SENSORY ANALYSIS

 PART II

The different types of sensory tests

PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The essential points of the protocol

✓ Attention to the representativeness of the sample

✓ Presentation mode: as realistic as possible, practical
✓ Homogeneity of the samples: T°, quantity, container
✓ Choose the number of repetitions
✓ Make the samples anonymous
✓ Distribution in a random order
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The essential points of the protocol

✓ Anonymous tasting but explanatory feedback

after the test (meeting, sheets, ...)
✓ Verification of the sanitary quality of the products
✓ Agreement from the tasters (form, contract, ....)
✓ Authorization of tastings according to the place
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Two types of approaches:

I. Analytical: discriminative or descriptive

Differences

II. Hedonic: relating to the character

pleasant or unpleasantness

Preferences
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

I Analytical We seek to determine II Hedonic

The differences The preferences

Is there a How are the products

difference? different?

Discriminative Descriptive Hedonic

test test test

Initiated subjects Qualified subjects Naïve subjects

PART II: The different types of sensory tests

▪ Naïve subjects: know neither the product nor the

sensory analysis

▪ Initiated subjects: know the product and the sensory

analysis

▪ Qualified subjects: knows the product, the sensory

analysis, trained, followed, validated, ...
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

I Analytical We seek to determine

The differences The preferences

Is there a How are the products

difference? different?

Discriminative Descriptive Hedonic

test test test
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Discriminative tests
✓ Among the most used tests: control of the constancy of
the production, consequences of a change of raw
material, evaluation of the time of appearance of
modification during storage...

✓ Different types of descriminative tets:

Duo/trio
Triangle
P among n
A not A
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Discriminative tests
✓ About 20 initiated subjects know the test and the
rules of the test, have the ability to discriminate

✓ Too many subjects can lead to a significant result

when few people can tell the difference

✓ No prior information on the nature of the

differences

✓ An incorrect answer is not necessarily a failure

PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Discriminative tests
Matching Quickly determine proximities
test between different products

▪ The products are presented to the subjects with an identity

(A, B ...).

▪ They are re-presented anonymously (coding) and in a

random order (+ repetitions).

✓ The test must match:

• No more than 6 products at a time
• About 30 subjects
• Treatment: Chi2
PART II: The different types of sensory tests
Discriminative tests
Triangle Is there a difference between 2
Test products?

Example: Which sample do you perceive as different from

the other two?
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Discriminative tests
✓ Panelists
- About thirty
- Follow their results over time

✓ Samples
- 6 possible presentations AAB, BAA, ABB, BAA, ABA, BAB
- Use each presentation a similar number of times otherwise risk
of bias (random choice of the middle sample, better identification of
the most intense sample if it is double)

✓ Treatment: Number of correct answers and comparison to a binomial

distribution of probability 1/3 (cumulative probability, one-sided test)
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Discriminative tests
❖ Advantage:

- Easy to implement
- Easy to perform even for untrained subjects
- Fun (training)
- Easy to interpret

❖ Disadvantages:

- Homogeneous products
- High number of tests if there are many samples
- No indication of the nature of the difference
 PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Discriminative tests
Others test
▪ Duo trio test: one control and two samples, one of which is identical
to the control. The subject must identify it. Similar to the triangular test
but ½ probability. To be used when you want to limit the number of
samples

▪ Test A - not A: a memorized control then a series of samples. Subject

must say whether they are the same or different from the control. Risk
of bias ("different" answer favored). To be avoided

▪ Test p out of n: similar to the triangular test but instead of presenting

one out of 3, the task is complicated (for example 2 out of 5). More
satisfactory statistically but to be reserved for products that do not tire
the subjects (example: visual comparison)
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

I Analytical We seek to determine

The differences

How are the products

different?

Descriptive
test

Qualified subjects
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Descriptive test
Rank in order of increasing intensity on a
Ranking test specific characteristic of samples presented
simultaneously

Example: Which product is the sweetest?

PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Descriptive test
✓ Advantages:

- Easy to implement (no control or reference)

- Easy to understand even for untrained subjects
- Easy to interpret
- Theoretically indisputable (according to psychologists)
- Effective

✓ Disadvantages :

- All samples must be presented at the same time - difficult to

study storage for example
- No indication of the intensity of perceived differences
- Number of comparisons can be high
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Descriptive test

Standard profile Building a descriptive profile

Example: What are the organoleptic characteristics of a coffee?

Odor intensity

Riotate Form
✓ Objective: to describe the product with
a minimum of words
Acidity

Burnt
✓ Quantification of appropriate
descriptors (established a list) Bitter

Soil

✓ Caution: no hedonic descriptors Astrigent

Greeness

Fruity
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Descriptive test
Vocabulary selection: Generation

✓ Step 1: Generate a large number of descriptors

✓ Step 2: Select and reduce
- Descriptors should not be hedonic
- Descriptors should be able to differentiate products
- Remove synonymous or closely related terms
- This should result in about 15-20 descriptors
✓ Step 3: Choice of references per descriptor (stable or reproducible)
✓ Step 4: Specific training
✓ Step 5: repeatability
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Descriptive test
Example of descriptors:
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Descriptive test

Profile free

✓ Each subject creates its own vocabulary

✓ The training is simplified

✓ Statistical processing is complex Interpretation of

results requires much more time
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Descriptive test
Synthesis

Compulsory list
Conventional
profile

List generated by a consensus of the group

Specific descriptors for each taster

Free choice of the profile

Free profile
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The working environment: the

laboratory
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The working environment: staffs

(ISO 13300-1:2006)

✓ Laboratory Manager
Administrative and budgetary responsibility
✓ Sensory analyst
Scientific manager of the analysis
✓ Session technician
Technical manager → operational function
✓ Jury moderator directs
jury activities (organisation), recruits, trains and supervises
subjects
✓ Quality manager
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

✓ Principle: constant, controlled conditions to reduce the

disturbances and effects that psychological and physical
conditions can have on human behavior.

✓ Minimum facility:
- A test room for booth
and group work
- A preparation room
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The working environment: The area

(ISO V 09-105)
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The working environment: The area

(ISO V 09-105)

✓ Temperature
✓ Humidity
✓ Uniform and controllable light
✓ Floor, wall and ceiling easy to clean, odorless,
soft and relaxing color
→ Odorless room, ventilation
✓ Arrangement avoiding mutual influence
(individual booths)
✓ Silence
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The panelist
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The panelist
Definitions Subjects:
✓ "Naïve" panelists: know neither the product nor the
sensory analysis
✓ Initiated panelists: know the product and the sensory
analysis
✓ Qualified panelists: know the product, the sensory
analysis / trained, followed, validated, ...
✓ Expert panelists: qualified subjects who have excellent
sensory acuity, are trained in the use of sensory
methods and are able to reliably perform sensory
analysis of various products
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The panelist

What do we want from the panel?

✓ They must understand the common definition of the
terms
✓ They must recognize the sensation in the product
✓ It must be repeatable, reproducible and
discriminating
✓ They must be sensitive
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The panelist
General recommendations
✓ Be in good health, report a sickly condition
✓ Avoid body odor and cosmetics
✓ Do not smoke, consume or use strong products at
least one hour before the tests
✓ Be punctual in all circumstances
✓ Respect silence
✓ Read the questionnaires carefully
✓ Rinse your mouth as often as possible
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The panelist
Recruitment
✓ How many subjects? Twice as much as desired for the
jury (e.g. for 10 subjects in routine, 20 selected or 40
recruited)
✓ How many? Selection criteria:
- Interest and motivation
- Behavior towards food products
- Knowledge and skills (concentration, ...)
- Health
- Communication skills
- Availability
- Behavior: persevering, punctual, reliable and honest
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The panelist
Recruitment
Advantage Disadvantage

Internal Cost, stability, influenced by its

(company personnel) confidentiality judgments, difficulty to
make the product evolve,
difficult renewal,
availability
External Wide choice, no problem Costly, urban, retired and
(outside of with management, women without
company) "easier" selection, professional activities on
availability representation, overnight
departure possible
Mixte
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The panelist
On the duration………
……..it is important to be understanding and motivate the panelists

✓ After the studies, explain the use of the results

✓ Gifts or compensation
✓ Provide regular feedback on their performance
✓ Use codes to identify the panelists and do not
comment on their results in groups
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The panelist
Recruitment and selection of subjects
Pre-selection / Entry into the panel

Recruitment, initial selection and induction

Training in general principles and methods

Performance monitoring

Validation

Training on specific matrix

Validation
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The panelist
✓ Accuracy all values are
close
✓ Average accuracy close
to the real value
✓ Accuracy faithful and
fair
✓ Repeatability
repetitions, identical
conditions
✓ Reproducibility
variations: location,
experimenter ...
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

The panelist
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

I Analytical We seek to determine II Hedonic

The differences The preferences

Is there a How are the products

difference? different?

Discriminative Descriptive Hedonic

test test test
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

What question do we want to answer

✓ What type of consumer is involved

?
✓ In what consumption situation
✓ Which consumer group to use
✓ How to ask the questions
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Analyse the problem:

✓ Study of consumer preferences

- At the time of the first consumption ?
- Long-term preference (effect of lassitude, aversion) ?
- Consumption behavior?
✓ Study of consumer acceptability
New products
✓ Study of consumer expectations
Ideal product?
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Preliminary study of consumption behavior

✓ Time
✓ Quantity
✓ Frequency
✓ Association
✓ Method of preparation (raw or
cooked, pressed ...)
✓ Place
✓ ……….
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Beware of common mistakes

✓ Any questions that influence the answer
✓ Ask them why they like or dislike ?What do you like about
this product?
✓ Ask them analytical questions, Which product do you find
more acidic?
✓ Ask them to use an unnatural scale, Ask children to rate on a
bar scale between 1 and 9
✓ Sometimes observing behaviors, noting consumption times is
the best way
PART II: The different types of sensory tests
Hedonic
The panelist
✓ Naïve subject, i.e. untrained, rather inexperienced on
the sensory aspect
An expert jury gives a very different result from a
panel of untrained consumers
✓ Representative subject of the target population
- Specific groups: consumers of the
Product (women,children, dogs, beer consumers...)
- Non consumers of the product
- General population: randomly selected
- From one region or from several
✓ In general (100 persons)
 PART II: The different types of sensory tests
Hedonic

Pair test To evaluate consumer

preferences
• Presentation of 2 coded samples
• Different orders
• Question: which sample do you find
more pleasant?

✓ Advantages: simple and natural for the consumer

✓ Disadvantages:
- Difficult to set up if there are many samples
- Can give results that are difficult to interpret: A > B; B > C; C > A
(multi-dimensional judgment)
✓ Processing: Binomial statistics
 PART II: The different types of sensory tests
Hedonic

Ranking
Rank the samples from least
test pleasant to most pleasant

✓ Advantages: economical for the experimenter

✓ Disadvantages:
- Sometimes complicated for the subjects: in order to perform the
classification, the samples must be compared (motivation,
method of comparison and discipline)
- Not more than 7 samples
PART II: The different types of sensory tests
Hedonic

Hedonic Presentation of the samples 1 by 1

evaluation Rating of the pleasantness on a
rating scale or interval

Rating scale:
1. Extremely unpleasant
2. Very unpleasant
3. Unpleasant
4. Quite unpleasant
5. Neither unpleasant nor pleasant
6 . Quite pleasant
7. Pleasant
8. Very pleasant
9. Extremely pleasant
 PART II: The different types of sensory tests
Hedonic

Hedonic Presentation of the samples 1 by 1

evaluation Rating of the pleasantness on a
rating scale or interval

✓ Subjects: May be familiar with the test but not with

the product (loss of spontaneity)
✓ Samples:
- No more than 20
- Wait 1 to 3 minutes between samples
- Different order for each subject
- If possible, do not leave the scores of the previous
samples visible.
- Often give the first 2 samples again
PART II: The different types of sensory tests
Hedonic

Test of Evaluate the pleasantness of a

series of 15 samples
lassitude
→ Subjects receive 15 small samples( 1/5 serving) of the
same product.
- Prevent that they may not feel any difference between the samples
but may find them more or less pleasant.
-They must eat each sample completely.

• Suitable for non-saturating and homogeneous products

• No filled cookies or fruit
• Treatment: Friedman or Wilcoxon tests
 PART II: The different types of sensory tests
Hedonic
OTHER
TESTS Types of sensory tests

✓ Aversion
successive consumption with notation, consumption time
and quantity consumed.
✓ Authenticity
similarity to a standard, for example for a light product:
series of 15 samples, say if standard or "false
✓ Consumption
In controlled situation
✓ Monadic
1 product tested at home, hedonic and practical
questions
PART II: The different types of sensory tests
Hedonic

CATA (check-all-that-apply) analysis

to characterize products tested by consumers
Principle: In addition to the usual questions, and a global
score, each participant receives a questionnaire
containing descriptors applied to the tested products. For
each product, the judge ticks the attributes or does not
tick them, according to his feeling (presence / absence).
PART II: The different types of sensory tests

Summary In practice

✓ Study of the question ....

✓ Understanding of the products and the "type of
consumers
✓ Selection of the samples to be tested
✓ Selection of the place (authorization, ...)
✓ Focus Group
✓ Setting up the questionnaire
✓ Realization of the test
 PART III
How to conduct a sensory test?
PART III How to conduct a sensory test?

Test selection
PART III: How to conduct a sensory test?
Test selection

Principle: Clarify the question asked.

Example: "I have changed my manufacturing process.

I want to know if my product still has the same
characteristics? Is it still as good?

✓ Is there a noticeable difference between my

old process and the new one?
✓ I know there is a difference. Will consumers
of the old product like the new one?
PART III: How to conduct a sensory test?
Test selection
Selection of the methods:

It depends on the question asked and on the practical and

financial realities.

✓ Can the question be solved by other technic, physico-

chemical analyses for example?
✓ Is the question simple, can a test answer it? Analytical
or hedonic test?
✓ Is the question complex? Is it necessary to have
several tests to answer it? The different types of
sensory tests
PART III: How to conduct a sensory test?
Test selection
✓ Study of consumer preferences
- At first consumption? Pair test, Ranking test, Hedonic
evaluation
✓ Long-term acceptability (lassitude effect) ? Lassitude test
✓ Study of consumer attitudes and preferences.
- According to the quantity consumed? Aversion tests
✓ Study of consumer expectations
- Ideal product? Ranking test, hedonic evaluation
- Product compliant with a standard? Authenticity test
PART III: How to conduct a sensory test?
Test selection
Some complex questions involve both analytics
and hedonics:

Example: Which chips do consumers prefer and

why?
Preference mapping can answer these types of
questions. It uses descriptions by experts and
consumer preferences on the same products.
PART III: How to conduct a sensory test?
Test selection
SENSORY PROFILE HEDONIC TEST
Description multiple quantified Hedonic global appreciation
Consumer study

Trained subjects Non-trained subjects

(n=15) (n>100)

Search for correlations

cartography of preferences
PART III: How to conduct a sensory test?
Test selection
PART III: How to conduct a sensory test?
Test selection
PART III: How to conduct a sensory test?
Test selection