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Sensory Lab - Services

James E. Garrison Sensory Lab - Services

Trained Panels

Descriptive Analysis

  • Product Comparison Product comparison tests can be an effective method to determine how your product compares to your competitor’s. These tests are conducted by trained panels and can provide insights into characteristics that make the difference in why a consumer likes one product over another.

  • Product characterization/development Sensory characterization is one of the most extensively applied tools in sensory science. Descriptive analysis with trained panels has been traditionally used for sensory characterization. This work addresses the development of new evaluation methods and quality assessment for trained sensory panels.

  • Preference mapping Preference mapping is statistical techniques used to develop an understanding of consumer preferences. Results of preference mapping analysis can be used to assist in product development.

  • Shelf-life determination The length of time for which foods must be consumed can be determined by using storage trials to estimate the physical, chemical, and microbiological stability of food.

Difference Testing

  • Triangle Tests The triangle test is a discriminative method with many uses in sensory science including: gauging if an overall difference is present between two products, selecting qualified panelists for a particular test, or determining whether shifts in processing or ingredients have significantly changed a product. (Society of Sensory Professionals)

  • Difference from control-tests The difference from control test is classified as an overall difference test. It is similar to the degree of difference test, in that it is used to determine if there is, in fact, a difference between one or more test samples and a control. And, more importantly, if there is a difference, its size can also be measured with this test. (Society of Sensory Professionals)

  • Similarity Tests Similarity test are used to determine if two samples are sufficiently similar. This is especially helpful when reformulating products for reduced costs and validating alternate suppliers for ingredients.

  • Alternate Forced Choice Testing Alternatively forced choice (AFC) test is defined by ASTM International as: "method in which 2, 3, or more stimuli are presented, and assessors are given a criterion by which they are required to select one stimulus.

  • Power Determinations An important aspect of designing an experiment is to determine the number of observations needed to make conclusions of sufficient accuracy and confident. The sample size need depends on what type of experiment is being contemplated, how it will be conducted, resources, and desired sensitivity and confidence. Generally, increasing the number of replications increases the sensitivity and makes it easier to detect small differences.

Consumer Panels

  • Consumer Acceptability/comparison tests: Determining the feasibility of whether a product or service will be acceptable to the consumer is performed through consumer acceptability tests. Cluster analysis comprises a set of statistical techniques that aim to group “objects” into homogeneous subsets. The objects can be people or products. For example, cluster analysis can be used to segment people (consumers) into subsets based on their liking ratings for a set of products. Such consumer segmentation is an essential step in preference mapping, where the goal is to understand drivers of consumer liking, and cluster analysis is used to summarize differences among consumers in their likes and dislikes.

  • Preference tests: These tests supply information about people's likes and dislikes of a product. They are not intended to evaluate specific characteristics, such as crunchiness or smoothness. They are subjective tests and include pair comparison, hedonic, and scoring.

  • Ranking tests: If more than two samples are evaluated, a preference ranking test may be completed. Usually three to five samples are the most that can be efficiently ranked by a consumer. This test asks the consumer to order the samples based on preference, with a ranking of "1" meaning most preferred.

  • Clust analysis: A statistical technique that aim to group "objects" into homogeneous subsets. For example, clust analysis can be used to segment people (consumers) into subset based on the liking ratings for a set of products. Such consumer segmentation is an essential step in preference mapping, where the goal is to understand drivers of consumer liking, and cluster analysis is used to summarize differences among consumers in their likes and dislikes.