3.5.3 Sensory evaluation Typeit

The human tongue contains taste receptors, referred to as , which help us to detect bitter, sour, salty, sweet or savoury tastes. Taste buds help us to evaluate what we eat and influence our food choices through our food (what we like or dislike). Humans have five basic tastes – sweet, sour, bitter, salty and (a savoury taste from a Japanese word meaning pleasantly savoury tasting) – which enable us to develop likes and dislikes to certain foods. Our senses are important to us so that we can determine differences in taste, appearance, texture and smell.

The smell of food may be appetising to us and make us want to eat it or be off-putting and make us reluctant to taste it. Our sense of smell is called our sense, and it is capable of detecting over 10,000 different smells. Food smells (in the form of tiny molecules undetectable to the human eye) reach the scent receptors in the nose; the receptors transmit the signals received to the back of the nose and on to the brain. We then react to the smell by finding it appetising or unappetising. We sniff so that more molecules can be received by special sensors at the top of the nose. Our senses of smell and taste are connected. A stuffed-up nose affects your sense of taste.

Our sense of taste determines the types of food for which we have a preference. Some people prefer sweet, sugary foods (have a ‘’), while some people prefer savoury foods. While some people can tolerate bitter or sour tastes, some people cannot. Brussel sprouts contain a bitter compound which also occurs in cabbages, broccoli and kale and other vegetables (vegetables from the cabbage family). Some people can detect the bitter taste in Brussel sprouts while others are not aware of it.

Food producers use a range of taste tests to help determine which products will be favoured by the consumers, and will succeed in the market.

• Preference tests are used within consumer marketing to determine whether a particular group of consumers prefer a certain food product compared to another. This enables a manufacturer to see whether a new product will be successful with the public or not. Because a large number of testers is required for this method of testing, it can be time-consuming and costly. In a preference test, a tester is provided with two samples and requested to indicate their preference for one of the products.
• The nine-point scale is used in order to rate how much a consumer likes or dislikes a product on a sliding scale of like extremely to dislike extremely. This test is sometimes referred to as a likeability test.
• The test involves three samples, two of the same sample and one different sample. The tester must try and identify the different sample (odd one out) and record the results.
• test attempts to detect differences in similar products, e.g. is one product sweeter than another product? The tester must sort the products into order of sweetness starting with the most sweet and ending with the least sweet product.
• tests are used to detect characteristics between two similar products. For example, testing whether a reduced sugar product tastes significantly less sweet than a full sugar product. The tester uses a scale starting at dislike down to like a lot.
• A test is also referred to as a star test and is used to evaluate the characteristics of a product using a five-point scale.