Sensory Panels
Sensory panels are used throughout the food industry to assess the potential impact of changed recipes – for better or worse – and also for new product developments. There are two types of sensory panels: trained ones and hedonic panels. Trained panels have been practicing the recognition of certain components in a specific product. Olive oil is one of them. You may be able to describe an extra virgin olive oil with “green apple”, but who would think of banana, bacon or fusty in this context?
Now, the issue associated with sensory panels is that they consist of humans. And humans are individuals, with different abilities to recognize compounds responsible for flavors and odors.
Several years back, I experienced a key event: a man who is a beekeeper and honey expert approached us with some honey, which he said had some strange, unpleasant flavor. We tried the honey (some of us were trained sensory panel members), but none of us could taste anything “off” in the honey. The man insisted and eventually, the sample was analyzed on a very sensitive instrument, to reveal a few molecules of substances which were common in the petrol industry. What happened was that the honey had been kept in a barrel that previously contained oil or petrol, presumably in the absence of clean barrels. Among all of us, there was only one person who could taste (detect) these compound at such low concentrations. This example illustrates the differences among individuals of any sensory panel, trained or hedonic.
How Artificial Intelligence can support Sensory Analysis and Product Development
How if you could predict consumer’s acceptance of a product before it reaches the market? And what would it take? This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) comes handy. AI will allow assessing impacts of ingredient changes or additions based on a similar product where sensory data are available. AI is also capable, subject to availability of sufficient measurement data, of determining and even predicting flavor and quality differences of products based on a set of sensory panel data.
Want to know more about what AI can do for your products?
If you are interested in learning how AI can help you with your sensory panels and predict the impact of changing the composition of your products, do not hesitate to contact us.
