Harness the power of sensory insights

24 September 2024 | Susan Rogers, Sensory Insights Section Manager

There are many benefits and applications of sensory analysis. The insights gained from robust sensory data allow product development and quality teams to make more informed commercial decisions to ensure the success of their products in the market.

From product development through to production, and (if things have gone wrong) in the investigation of consumer complaints, you can benefit from harnessing the power of sensory insights.

Without applying sensory analysis, especially when making changes, food business operators risk wasted time and money, and their product/brand’s reputation.

This blog explores the benefits and applications of using sensory analysis to produce robust sensory data and insights (provided by descriptive profiling and discrimination testing) to help clients make more informed and meaningful commercial decisions.

Sensory descriptive profiling – what it is

Sensory Descriptive Profiling is a well-established technique used to characterise and quantify differences between a set of samples. Our descriptive profiling is based on the Quantitative Descriptive Analysis® (QDA) technique, or a modified version of QDA known as Rapid Attribute Profiling (RAP).

QDA is a gold-standard, internationally recognised profiling technique. We developed a modified version called Rapid Attribute Profiling to deliver results similar to QDA but faster and more cost-effectively!

Both methods use a highly trained and screened Descriptive Panel (alongside experienced sensory scientists and project managers) who are experts in the application of descriptive profiling methods. Both QDA and RAP can be applied across any food, drink or non-food product category.

Sensory descriptive profiling – its applications and benefits

Descriptive profiling unlocks insights into products that enable clients to make more informed and meaningful commercial decisions when it comes to product development.

For example, the robust data generated can help inform the direction of new product development or determine whether products can be used interchangeably or that a new packaging can be used with no negative impact on the food or beverage product itself.

Other applications include exploring the impacts of changes (to processes ingredients, formulation, packaging), differences between your product and a competitor’s product, differences between varieties of raw materials, or just to gauge an overall profile of the sensory characteristics that define a product.

Having meaningful insight into your product’s characteristics can result in successful product development, facilitate a deeper understanding into how the sensory characteristics of your product are perceived, and reduce the potential for consumer complaints.

Discrimination testing – the triangle test and more

As well as full descriptive profiling, we also carry out a range of discrimination tests – such as triangle tests – to explore the effects of changes in ingredients, packaging or processing, and to investigate potential taint problems.

Discrimination testing is an established quality assurance measure and can be applied when clients are making changes to their product (as a result of product development, product optimisation or reducing costs) and want to know in what way the proposed change could affect the finished product quality. It establishes whether a panel of sensory assessors (all of whom have been screened for their sensory acuity, descriptive and discrimination ability) can perceive noticeable differences between the existing and changed product.

The triangle test is one of the most well-known and simple discrimination tests and is used to determine whether a trained sensory panel can detect sensory difference(s) between two samples (typically this is a comparison between a test and a control sample).

If triangle testing does not fit your test objective / product type, there are other discrimination test methods available for which test applications are similar. For example, ‘Tetrad’ (similar to the triangle test but more statistically sensitive), ‘A – Not A’ (the panel rate which samples have a particular attribute and which do not), and ‘Difference from Control’ (the panel compare the test samples to a labelled control and rate how much they differ, in terms of their sensory quality; this method is typically used for quality control / quality assurance purposes).

Applying discrimination testing during the product development process helps clients to confidently make changes to their products, knowing that their regular consumers will not notice the difference.

Discrimination test applications

Some of the many useful applications of discrimination testing include:

Verifying changes to formulations during product development or to meet HFSS targets.
Assessing the effect of changes to ingredients, packaging, production sites, processes, or storage on the overall sensory character of the finished product.
Validating reformulated recipes (reduced sugar, salt, fat, etc) to check they are sufficiently similar in sensory character to the current recipe (and therefore can be used interchangeably).
Matching competitors’ products – i.e. “is the test protype sufficiently similar to the target product?”.
Taint investigation and identification following customer or consumer complaints.
Taint potential of new packaging, chemicals, plant protection treatments, etc.
Measuring changes in product quality over shelf-life (storage trials).

Where results show the samples are different, further detailed testing such as sensory descriptive profiling, (discussed above) could be undertaken to reveal the nature and scale of the differences.

The data from discrimination testing can help product development teams to target the product reformulation required, to enable them to launch successful products. On the other hand, not factoring in sensory testing into your NPD process could lead to wasted time, effort, and money, and may impact brand trust and market share.

Helping you leverage sensory insights

Our sensory insights team can help you to:

Develop successful products that meet consumer expectations.
Ensure that you have all the information you need when assessing the impact of change.
Assure the quality of ongoing commercial production.

Across our business, we have more than 200 scientists and technical experts collaborating on a wide range of projects every day. Our sensory panels and sensory scientists have the experience and technical insights to support the success of your projects and products.

Our assessment services range from simple quality assessment checks right through to full, descriptive sensory mapping / profiling of your products in comparison with your competitors or other products and have a wide range of valuable applications and benefits.

About Susan Rogers

Susan has a wealth of knowledge, expertise and experience in sensory science and has worked at Campden BRI since 1999. Her first sensory role was Discrimination Projects Manager, working predominantly with taint investigation of food, and managing the Defence Food Services Quality Assurance contract (providing sensory, technical and analytical food testing services for the UK armed services). Susan has also worked as Sensory Projects Manager (Discrimination and Descriptive Projects) and is currently Sensory Insights Section Manager responsible for new business development and managing the sensory project teams activities.

Alongside supporting various client projects through sensory and other data, Susan also lectures on our sensory training courses.