Sensory Evaluation

and Analysis

MA. AEZEL A. ZABATE

Instructor
Which senses do we use in evaluating food?

A range of senses are used when eating food.

These senses are:

• sight;
• smell;
• hearing;
• taste;
• touch.

A combination of these senses enables you to evaluate

a food.
SENSORY ANALYSIS- is the science of determining the
attributes of products using the human senses.

Sensory science is the study of the reactions of the five

senses, these are sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.

Sensory evaluation is a useful tactic to identify the

organoleptic properties of food, as well as of pharmaceutical,
cosmetic, and other consumer products, through testing of
the five human senses.
Measurement of Taste and Odor:
• Determination the • Determination of salty
sweet taste: measure the taste: measure the
sugar content sodium chloride content
• Acidity: pH • Rancid taste: peroxide
measurement number determination
• Aroma: gas chromatograph, liquid chromatograph,
electronic nose
Appearance
- The size, shape, colour, temperature and surface
texture all play an important part in helping to determine
your first reaction to a food.

Often if a food does not look appetizing, then you will not eat
it.
Appearance is therefore vitally important if you want your
food to be eaten and enjoyed.
•Appearance
• Useful words to describe appearance:
• Stringy, firm, dry, heavy, flaky, crumbly, crisp, lumpy,
fizzy, fluffy, smooth, crystalline, hard, mushy, sticky,
Odor
- The nose detects volatile aromas released
from food. An odor may be described by association with a
particular food,
e.g. herby, cheesy, fishy. The intensity can also be
recorded.

Odor and taste work together to produce flavor.

This is the reason why people with a blocked nose find it

difficult to determine the flavours of foods.
Odor
Useful words to describe odour:
Aromatic, pungent, spicy, floral, tainted, rancid, citrus
Acrid, strong, mild, musty,
Facts about our senses…..
sight: light bounces off things around us and reaches
our eyes, where special cells detect the light and send
a message to our brain
hearing: pressure waves in the air (sound) make our
eardrums vibrate, which is detected by special cells in
our ears, which send a message to our brain
touch: cells in our skin detect pressure, heat,
and cold, and send a message to our brain

taste: when certain molecules touch our

tongues, they activate special cells that send a
message to our brains.
smell: molecules from objects around us evaporate
and travel to our noses, where they activate special
cells that send a message to our brains
Rules during sensory evaluation/ rules for sensory panel
1. Panelists should not eat anything a few hours prior to and
during the sensory evaluation (except for what they are
given during the test)
2. Sensory panel should not be distracted by noise.
3. Number of samples is important bec. Panelists could
possibly adopt to a specific sensory feeling and cause a
deviation in their judging of the samples given.
4. Water should be provided in between the tasting of the
samples.
5. The best time of day for sensory testing is morning 10.00
am to 12noon and 3 to 5 pm.
6. Judgement should be done quickly, but not hurriedly.
7. Odor observation by sniffing should be done before
tasting.
8. The score card should be clearly typed or printed.
9. All score card should contain the date and name of the
judge.
Role of Sensory Evaluation

1. In the early stages of product development, sensory

testing can help to pinpoint the imperative sensory
characteristics driving acceptability.
2. It can be useful to ascertain target consumers, product
competitors and assess the new ideas.
3. Sensoric evaluation can determine the impact of scaling
up pilot samples to large-scale manufacture.
4. Sensory evaluation give assurances that inferior products
are not released in the market.
5. In most of the cases, sensory evaluation is used to
estimate shelf life of the food products.
Characteristic of a food product can be described in terms
of:
1. APPEARANCE
- is the first characteristics perceived by the human
senses and play an important role in the identification and
final selection of food.

- This is the visual perception of food comprised of

color, shape, size, gloss, dullness and transparency.

- The look of a food or beverage impacts crave ability

and acceptance, before the product touches the lips.
2. FLAVOR
- It is sensory phenomenon which is used to denote the
sensations of odor, taste and mouthfeel.

- Flavoring substances are aromatic compounds which

are conceived by the combination of taste and odor and
perceived by the mouth and nose.

- Odor improves the delight of eating

e.g. aroma of freshly cooked rice and most of the
baked products.

- Taste helps in identification, acceptance and

appreciation of food. It is perceived by the taste buds on the
tongue.
Flavor and Appearance of food

Appearance- can be a sign of quality or ripeness.

-It can be an ‘expectation’.
- Colors and shapes and an attractive
presentation are key contributors to the appearance of food.

*a garnish is an edible
Decoration added to another
food item to improve
appearance.
When the picture of the Green eggs and ham and
sandwich in the ad looks purple catsup defy the
neat, but the actual food ‘expectation’ of good food
looks sloppy and flat… color. Some consumers
flavor is affected. cannot accept them.
3. AROMA
- Aroma is the first cousin of taste.

- These are volatile compounds which are perceived by

the odor receptors of olfactory tissues of the nasal cavity.

- Smell appraises the aroma of food that is important in

the gratitude of flavor.

- aroma is valuable in perceiving fresh, rancid or

intermittently poisonous food.
4. TEXTURE
- Texture is perceived by a combination of senses i.e.
touch, mouthfeel, sight and hearing.

- Texture is prerequisite in the acceptance of numerous

foodstuffs
e.g. tenderness of meat and softness of bread.

- It also include the consistency, thickness,

fragility, chewiness and the size and shape of particles in food.
5. SOUND
- Hearing deliberates the sounds made by food during
preparation and ingesting
e.g. the crackle of fried food, the effervescence of
drinks, the cracking of hard biscuits.

So, in sensory analysis, the senses are used to measure,

analyze and interpret the organoleptic or sensory properties
of food.
The sense of touch figures in the overall flavor impression by
conveying temperature, texture & pressure, sensations of
touch (smoothness, crunchiness), irritation (cool menthol,
hot pepper), or thermal differences (hot or cold) called
CHEMESTHESIS & may be experienced in the eyes, mouth,
nose or throat.

• OLFACTORY =The olfactory system is the sensory system

used for olfaction, or the sense of smell; the sense that
enables one to perceive odors

• GUSTATORY = is the sensory system for the sense of taste

PRINCIPLES OF GOOD SENSORY TESTING
- Sensory assessment requires various kinds of controls
which influence the sensitivity of the tests.

- Preferably sensory testing must be done using

specially designed facilities. However, where such facilities do
not exist, researchers should create comfortable environment
as closely as possible.
General Requirements and Conditions for Sensory Testing
1. Testing Facility
- A well-equipped and specially designed
sensory laboratory should have the following areas:
i. Waiting room area
ii. Briefing area
iii. Sample preparation area
iv. Evaluation area
v. Discussion area
2. Climate control
- Sensory facility particularly evaluation and discussion
areas should be odor free and temperature controlled.

3. Odor Control
- The testing area must be kept free from odors.

4. Lighting
- Colored lights are usually optional in testing facilities
to disguise color variations among the food products.

5. Time of the Day

- Sensory tests should preferably be performed in the
morning or afternoon.
6. Serving temperature
- samples should be served at temperature these are
usually consumed
e.g. soup should be served hot and carbonated
drinks must be cold.

7. Sample Size
- It depends upon the test objective however sample should
be sufficient (about 30 g or adequate for 2-3 sips) for the overall
assessment of the product.

8. Number of Samples
- The number of samples depends upon the nature of
samples and test.
- In case of hot and spicy foods, only 2-3 samples should be
assessed in a sitting due to carryover effects where as in case of
bakery products 8-10 samples can be evaluated simultaneously.
9. Coding and Order of Presentation
- Generally samples are coded with arbitrary selected 3-
digit numbers to avoid biasness and order randomly to avoid
artifacts associated with order of presentation.

10. Palate Cleansers

- Trained evaluators generally use a palate cleanser during
sensory evaluation to reduce the residual materials from previous
samples.

- The most frequently used palate cleansers in sensory

evaluation laboratories include water, bread, apples and saltless
crackers.

- Sensory standards recommend use of milk for products

with garlic or spices and warm water for products that leave an
oily residue.
Application of Sensory Science to Product Development

- Sensory testing is used substantially in the food

industry for product development, recipe modification and
the evaluation of products.

- Product development is a continuous process in the

life cycle of foodstuff.

- Sensory evaluation results are either calculated

manually or by using computer programs. Furthermore
statistical analysis is carried out to ensure the reliability and
validity of the results.
SMELL
What are some of your favorite smells?

lilacs
baking bread

rain in the desert Spaghetti sauce

Of course, there are some bad smells too.

skunks smelly socks

Stinky diaper Food gone bad

There are two classifications of odors: six groupings and four
groupings.
The six groupings include the odors of spicy, flowery, fruity,
resinous, burnt and foul.
The four groupings include fragrant (sweet), acid (sour),
burnt, and caprylic (goaty) (Brown 2011).
The human body detects odors through the volatile
molecules, which travel through the air and are then detected
by the olfactory cells in the brain.

An individual can smell food from a distance and be

captivated by the odor, making the choice to try the food
(Brown 2011).

How many smells do you think humans can distinguish?

humans can distinguish over 10,000 different smells

Are there any other animals that can smell better than we can?

YES
Why can other animals smell things much better than we
can?

1) more receptor cells

bloodhounds' olfactory epithelium is 60 cm2, contains
300 million receptor cells, can detect much lower amounts
2) more kinds of receptors
can detect odors that we can't
3) larger portion of their brains are devoted to processing
smell
can put it all together
Why do some things not have a smell?

gold doesn't evaporate

no molecules reach your
nose

Why does strawberry shampoo smell good but taste bad?

You are only smelling the molecules
that evaporate, but you are
tasting all of the other
molecules too (the soap).
Common smell in food
Molecules of Smell
 Process to smell food
- When we breathe, some chemicals enter our
nose
=> chemicals dissolve in the mucus
=> stimulate the smell receptors to produce
messages
=> These messages are sent to the brain to
give us the odor of the food.

Some chemicals in the

food diffuse
into the air.
 Brain
Magnify
nerve

nasal cavity

mucus lining

inside

sensory cell

chemicals
in food
So, when you smell a rose, what happens?

1) molecules from the rose evaporate

2) they float through the air and get in your nose and hit the
olfactory epithelium
3) they reach a receptor that they fit into
4) the cell the receptor is on gets activated and sends a
message to your brain
5) you recognize the smell of a rose
How are taste and smell connected?

chew on something with a flavor, then

hold your nose and keep chewing – after
a few seconds, the flavor will disappear

How do the gaseous molecules from

food reach your nose?
1) from outside your body when
you breathe in
increases desire and anticipation
2) from inside your mouth up
your throat while you chew
increases satisfaction
How do we smell?

Odorants can reach the olfactory epithelium by two routes:

Orthonasal olfaction: The detection

of an odor through the nostrils by
sniffing or inhalation.

Retronasal olfaction: The detection

of an odorant when it is released
from food in your mouth during
chewing, exhalation, or swallowing.
During this process, the odorant
passes through the posterior nares
of the nasopharynx.
Pathophysiological terms:

Anosmia- loss of smell sensation

e.g. cancer patient, tumor, trauma(due to damage to
olfactory epithelium)

Parosmia (dysosmia) – alteration in smell sensation.

e.g. Hormonal effect (pregnant)

Hypersomia- increase in smell sensation

e.g.- adrenal insufficiency

Hyposomia- decreased smell sensation

e.g.- Vitamoin A deficiency, common cold/flu
TASTE
SWEET- tongue tip; mediated by sugar, saccharide, amino acid
SOUR- tongue margins; mediated by H ions and acids
BITTER- back of the tongue; mediated by Alkaloids
SALTY- wildly distributed; mediated by salt; metals

Umami-
 TASTE

The most influential factor in the actual and ultimate

selection of food is taste.

The five taste stimuli of the tongue are sweet, sour,

bitter, salty and savory (or umami, which means “delicious” in
Japanese).
 Taste sensation- it is a chemical sense and gives taste to
food or not-food material.

Substance to be tasted should either be in solution or

diluted in saliva.

Taste is received by taste buds which contain huge

number of taste receptors(gustatory receptors)

We find these taste buds in a larger structure on the

tongue called papillae, and in the mucosa of palate, epiglottis,
pharynx.
Four kinds of papillae:
1. Filiform papillae: Small structures on the tongue that
provide most of the bumpy appearance. Have no taste
Function
2. Fungiform papillae: Mushroom-shaped structures that are
distributed most densely on the edges of the tongue,
especially the tip. An average of six taste buds per papilla are
buried in the Surface
3. Foliate papillae: Folds of tissue containing taste buds.
Located on the rear of the tongue lateral to the circumvallate
papillae, where the tongue attaches to the mouth.
4. Circumvallate papillae: Circular structures that form an
inverted Von the rear of the tongue (three to five on each
side). Mound like structures surrounded by a trench. Much
larger than fungiform papillae
 Taste Buds
Each taste bud pore has 50-100
taste receptor cells with antenna
like hairs that sense food
molecules
Wrap up:
Magnified

Papillae

taste
bud

Microscopic
sensory cell view of
taste buds (x100)

food

brain
PATHOPHYSIOLOGICAL TERMS

Aguesia- complete loss of taste

Dysgeusia- disturbed taste (in some disease as a symptom)
Hypergeusia- Adrenal insufficiency
- due to parasympathetic dominance which leads to
increase in saliva production.
Hypogeusia- reduced taste sensitivity (e.g. flu, drugs)
Why do warm foods have stronger flavor than cold
foods?

This is because when food is heated, more

chemicals in food diffuse into the air.
Some medicine is unpleasant to take.
You can hold your nose while taking
the medicine. This helps take away
the unpleasant feeling.
FUN FACTS
FUN FACTS
How important Sensory Evaluation and Analysis???