Food tasting

Food is made to be eaten, so tasting is essential of the person are to judge the success of a food product. Taste is detected by the taste buds in the mouth. Different areas of tongue can detect the four basic tastes: sweet, sour bitter and saltiness.

Impaired olfactory receptor cells or blocked nasal passages can cause us to lose ability to distinguish tastes. Food must be moist for taste to occur.

Although all taste receptor cells appear structurally the same, they connect to one of two different nerves associated with tongue.

Tasting food for product development is known as sensory analysis. Sensory analysis is used throughout food product development to make judgments about the quality of food.

The food industry trains people to work on tasting panels. If people are unwell or have a cold, they cannot take part in tasting panels as their sense are not working fully and they may not be able to distinguish between different tastes.

Several factors to be judge when tasting food:
*Appearance and color
*Taste and flavor
*Mouthfeel/texture., consistency
*Smell or odor
Food tasting

Preference Test

Preference Test
Preference test, acceptance test or affective tests are used to determine whether a specific consumer group like or prefer a particular product.

This is necessary for the development and marketing of new products, as no laboratory test can tell whether the public will accept a new product or not.

A large number of panelists, representing the general public must be used; thus, consumer testing is expensive and time consuming.

A relevant segment of the population needs to test the product. For example, if it is being aimed at over 50s, senior citizens must make up the taste panel and not mothers with young children.

The opposite would apply of the product was aimed at young children.

Ethnic product must be tested either by the group for which they are aimed or by a wide cross section of the public if the aim is to introduce the products to a broader market than is currently interested.

Panelists are not trained for this type of sensory testing. All that is required from them is that they give their opinion of the samples.

However they are normally screened to make sure that they are users or potential users of the product to be tested.

Typically, they are asked to fill out a screening sheet and answers questions about how much they like the product, and how often they consume it.

Anyone who does not like the product is asked not to take the test. The screening sheet may also ask for demographic information, such as gender and age range of the panelists.

The specific questions for each screening sheet are determined by whoever sets up the test, based on the consumer group they aimed to target with their product.

The simplest preference test are ranking test, where panelists are given two or more samples and asked to rank them in order preference.

In the paired preference test, panelists are given two samples and asked to circle the one they prefer.

Often, the panelists are asked to taste a sample and score it on a nine point hedonic scale from “dislike extremely” or “like extremely”. This type of test is called a likeability test.
Preference Test

Sensory Testing

Sensory Testing
Sensory testing utilizes one or more of the five senses to evaluate foods.

Taste panels, comprising groups of people, taste specific food samples under controlled conditions and evaluate them in different ways depending on the particular sensory test being conducted.

This is the only type of testing that can measure consumer preference and acceptability.

When it comes to public opinion of a product, there is no substitute for tasting by individual consumers.

In addition to a taste –panel evaluation, objective tests can be established that correlate with sensory testing, which give an indication of consumer acceptability, but this may not always be sufficient.

In the development of new foods or when changing an existing product, it is necessary to determine consumer acceptance directly and objective testing is not sufficient, even though it may be a reliable, objective indication of food quality.

Sensory methods may be used to determine:
*Whether foods differ in taste, odor, juiciness, tenderness, texture and so on.
*To what extend food differ
*To ascertain consumer preferences and to determine whether a certain food is acceptable to a specific consumer group.

Three types of sensory testing are commonly used, each with different goal. Discrimination or difference tests are design to determine whether there is a difference between products, descriptive tests determine the extent of difference in specific sensory characteristics and affective or acceptance/preference tests determine how well the products are liked or which products are preferred.

There are important differences between these types of tests. It is important to select the appropriate type of test so that the results obtained are able to answer the question being asked about the products and are useful to the manufacturer or product developer.

The appropriate tests must be used under suitable conditions in order for results to be interpreted correctly.

All testing must be carried out under controlled conditions, with controlled lighting, sound (no noise), and temperature to minimize distractions and other adverse psychological factors.
Sensory Testing