The Sensory Panel Flashcards
What is a sensory panel?
Selected and/or trained group of individuals
They assess sensory panels
What are the two types of panel?
Sensory panel or consumer panel
What is a consumer panel?
Representative group of consumers
They evaluate level of liking
What are the advantages of external panels?
Assessors available when you want them
Assessors only job, no distractions or time constraints
High assessor motivation
Can invest more time in panel training
What are the disadvantages of external panels?
Need enough work to keep a panel occupied
Fatigue problems more likely
More expensive
More difficult to move poor assessors
What are the advantages of internal panels?
Already employed by company, do not have to pay them
Confidentiality retained within the company
Assessors can be called at short notice if required
What are the disadvantages of internal panels?
– other jobs may take precedence - poor attendance
- lack of attention, time constraints in training
- possible pre-knowledge about products and test aims
- more difficult to motivate
- may have to work with less than ideal assessor
When selecting panelists, what is important?
Need to be able to communicate
Ability to follow instructions and read scales
Health, availability, motivation, feedback
When selecting assessors, what is important?
- any impairment
- normal sensitivity for each sense
- ability to identify and memorise flavours
- ability to describe what they taste
- ability to discriminate between different samples
- ability to score repeatedly
What things does the experimenter need to know?
- allergies (don’t destroy health)
- migraines
- medication (some suppresses appetite and can alter perception)
- oral health (toothache, absis, boils - if oozing can affect the taste)
- smoker
How are panelist selected, what kind of questioning takes place?
- taste matching test
- taste and odour recognition test
- ranking test
- questionnaires (eating habits, descriptive ability, use of scales)
Once selected, why are panelist trained?
- build assessor confidence
- increases experience of samples/methods
- increases complexity
- validates performance e.g. Spiked samples and replicates
How to motivate a panel?
Feedback
Incentives: cash, day trips, raffles, parties
What responsibilities does a panel leader have?
Facilitate good performance
- keep assessors motivated
- give clear objectives
- give regular feedback
- praise good performance as well as pointing out areas for improvement
- presentations on completed projects
- review data during sensory test
