Further important considerations in sensory testing

Rapid Sensory Profiling Techniques and Related Methods 

Since much of the testing being done today, and for the foreseeable future, will involve scoring of a product characteristic, the AOV becomes an essential resource in support of data analysis and interpretation. Since there are many AOV models, one needs to be familiar with those most appropriate for sensory data for example, the AOV mixed model (fixed and random effects) with replication is appropriate. Other features should allow for the ability to test the main effect by interaction when interaction is significant, and so forth. Finally, one needs to be cautious when using software that allows for exclusion of some data but without providing the details of what was excluded. Procrustes analysis is one such system. See Huitson (1989) for more discussion on this topic when applied to sensory data. The problem with any computation that removes some data is an assumption that data are an aberration when it may not. How does one know that this does or does not represent a unique 

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