Enhance the product value by taste sensation
We express the sensory experiences with your product in words. A sensory analysis is an objective and standardised measuring and analysis method, which is carried out with trained taste assessors. It can provide food producers with data about the characteristics of their products.

The Danish Meat Research Institute in Roskilde, Denmark has, from its establishment in 1954, worked with sensory analysis as part of the research activities. The Institute carries out sensory analysis of all types of food products in accredited laboratories. The following are examples of the products being tested:

If a company has a new product, and wishes to hit the right quality level prior to launch, or if the customer satisfaction is lacking, we have the required test methods.

When a taste panel expresses the results in words

Experiences from a consumer test
By Anette Eckholdt, freelance journalist

There is a long tradition for designing clothes, telephones and bags. When the wish is to improve Danish pigmeat, the first step is to ask the consumers what they consider to be good eating quality.

I am in a laboratory at the Danish Meat Research Institute in Roskilde as one of 12 out of a total of 440 consumers, who are going to assist the scientists with a survey of the consumers’ preference for good eating quality of pigmeat. We sit on chairs in small individual bays with a hatch to the kitchen at the end of the table. We are instructed in how to inspect, smell and taste the small pieces of meat before we enter our judgement onto a form. The hatch is opened nine times, and a small piece of pork is passed to us from the kitchen on a white plate. Nothing is served with the meat, and it is not even seasoned with salt and pepper.

I chew and taste. It is not easy. In addition to putting a cross to show whether it is taste, juiciness or meat structure that is important for the total assessment of the meat, I must also indicate with a mark on a line, how well I like the meat. I can easily taste the differences, but I am pleased not having to express my judgement in words. However, I am aware that the smell and the structure of the meat are more important than I immediately would have thought, and that the tenderness takes second place.

Subsequently we are asked to fill in a long questionnaire asking about income, the preferred type of meat and whether we use dentures.

Not everyone can become a professional taste panel member. They are selected because they have good taste buds that are particularly good at sensing nuances. After the selection their taste buds are trained to taste tiny flavour variations. Our panel, which consists of 18 women and 4 men aged 30 to 67 years, are part time employees and hand picked after entrance tests lasting three days. The main test establishes whether the applicants can taste salty, sweet, sour and bitter flavours, but also whether they can taste right down to the threshold values. We also test how good they are at sensing differences between products.

Only during the later training do they begin to express their taste experiences in words. It is, during the training, important that we work with open and communicative persons, who wish to discuss and to establish a common reference framework and a joint vocabulary for the tasting work. It is not uncommon that we start with 150-200 words to describe a product; later we together boil this down to 15-30 properties.

The professional panel is used either to establish whether there is a difference between two or more products (difference test) or to give a detailed description of different products in both words and figures (descriptive test). Read more about the tests in fact box 1. We also carry out consumer tests.

Consumer tests

We have considerable experience in consumer analyses in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The purpose of a consumer test is to achieve information about consumers’ preferences for, and accept of, certain products. The tests are done with untrained consumers and usually always with consumers from the target group for the product. A consumer test can be carried out on its own or as part of a market analysis.

It is not decisive for our trained panels whether they test a Danish sausage, a German beer or a British cake. They never, in advance, know the products they are presented with in our laboratories in Roskilde, and they are trained in giving objective descriptions of the flavour, smell, texture and appearance of the products.

You can get further information by contacting Camilla Bejerholm cb@danishmeat.dk

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Two types of tests performed in a sensory lab

Difference test
When the purpose of an assessment just is to establish whether there are differences between two products, a simple difference test is used. The test is suitable in connection with product adaptation, where is can be checked quickly whether a change in a certain recipe influences the sensory quality. We have for example used the method to assess whether an alteration in the recipe for the filling for Danish pastries could be perceived in the taste.

Descriptive test
When it is desired to obtain detailed information about a product, a descriptive test or a so-called profile analysis is used. It describes the properties that are characteristic for the product and the intensity of each property. With this analysis method we can also describe possible differences in words and figures. This is relevant for quality control, product development and other development activities such as meal development. We have made profile analysis on e.g. drinking water and pork prepared in different ways.