A Study to Recruit and Train the Product oriented Sensory Panel

Abstract

Food industry greatly depends on product quality and price. Sensory evaluation is a scientific method thathumans evaluate the eating quality parameters of food. The study was conducted to evaluate theperformances of the existing sensory panel, to recruit and train new members to sensory panel and toevaluate the performance of the product oriented sensory panel in the Industrial Technology Institute.Recruitment and training of product-oriented sensory panel was done according to the InternationalStandards 8586-1:1993. Initially 29 interested staff members, who were in good health, were selectedthrough a questionnaire from the same institute. Then they were subjected to several screening tests, namelybasic taste identification test, odour descriptive test, ranking test for the taste intensity, ranking test for thecolour intensity, matching test and texture descriptive test. Seventeen people who were selected from allscreening tests were trained in detection and recognition of tastes and odours, followed by discriminationtests (Paired comparison test, Duo-trio test and Triangle test) and three different scales (Category scale,Interval scale and Ratio scale). Results of the sensory evaluations and scales were statistically analyzed viaFriedman Two Way ANOVA rank sum test with SAS 9.0 software. The samples tested were significantlydifferent from each other (p<0.05) in each test and no significant difference occurred between the judgmentof the panelists. It concluded that they performed as a homogenous trained panel. Finally, sensory evaluationof black tea was conducted which was shelf life evaluation to evaluate the performance of the panelists witha real test samples. Data were analyzed via Friedman test and results revealed that all the panelistsperformed uniquely at 0.05 significance level. Therefore the recruited sensory panel was considered as atrained sensory panel and the outcome proved that the effectiveness of training and capability of chosen theproduct-oriented sensory panel.

KYWORDS: Sensory evaluation, Recruitment, Standard, Quality, Intensity