TDS experiment and panel training

This section introduces the concept of dominance and details the most important steps to correctly set a TDS experiment, from the definition of the protocol to the training of the panel and the collection of measurement data. 

From a general point of view, we can see that the most intense definition should be used when the focus is only the intensity, but in the majority of the cases a broader definition like popping-up or triggers the most your attention is more suitable. Practically, the concept of dominance can be introduced as such  

To illustrate this definition, one can think about a piece of chocolate with the rising perception of an aroma (say coffee aroma) after several seconds. It is possible that the coffee aroma is not as strong as the chocolate aroma, but coffee aroma is still perceived as dominant because this is the sensory sensation that triggers most of your attention. 

The selection of the attributes is critical and more important than for the Descriptive Analysis because the attributes are not evaluated independently (one by one). 

To determine the appropriate list of attributes, the glossary usually used for Descriptive Analysis can be used as a starting point to initiate the discussion with the subjects, but the attribute list for TDS is almost always different from the one used for Descriptive Analysis (at least, generally shorter). If the TDS evaluation is split into several phases (e.g. one TDS before swallowing and one TDS after swallowing), the attribute list can be different for each phase as long as there is no interest in the direct comparison of the TDS profiles across phases. 

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