Team tasting

Rapid methods can be adapted so that team tasting can be optimized and yield more actionable results. Many of these methods can also be considered for integrating traditional sensory expertise. Accordingly, they may allow sensory description with different types of subjects (including children, elder people and patients) or even sensory profiling at home for in-use evaluation of prodncts. 

Against this backdrop, it is easy to see the increasing need to implement the new tool team tasting , which involves the internal project team in the sensory evaluation. This chapter will analyse how this tool can be used, according to the following plan ... 

Precise analysis of the concrete situations where evaluation by team tasting is appropriate... 

A project team needs to be able to accurately characterize its products throughout the development process. From a practical point of view, it can be said that four relevant needs can be managed effectively through team tasting. 

An internal team tasting evaluation strategy has certain important specific features... 

An approach adapted to Danone s needs but integrated with the limits of the team tasting... 

In order to manage the team tasting evaluation, we have worked on establishing specific test designs. As regards the four needs detected (Section 16.2), we have structured and adapted four approaches for Danone based on around 10 years of trials and regular improvements. Each method has a common framework and its own design specificities. 

Improving team tasting in tiie food industry... 

Table 16.1 Use of team tasting depending on project need...

Basic characterization of the products Descriptive team tasting... 

Descriptive team tasting is based on a simple evalnation of products based on items and CATA. The approach is formalized in the plan in Table 16.2 and some concrete examples are described in the following text. 

The objective of comparative team tasting is to determine whether a difference exists between one or more samples and each given descriptor. This methodology is an internal adaptation of the difference-from-control test (Meilgaard, 20(X)). The modality of comparison should be predefined giving a quotation makes the test more difficult and is not recommended for non-expert assessors (O Mahony, 1995 Kim and O Mahony,... 

In the final design, the test is close to the A/not-A test with sureness, but applies several criteria. The design of the comparative team tasting test is described in Table 16.3. 

Figure 16.1 Example of questionnaire - descriptive team tasting.

Figure 16.2 (a) Result of the scale evaluation - descriptive team tasting (b) result of the CATA evaluation - descriptive team tasting. 

Table 16.3 Description of the comparative team tasting design...

Figure 16.6 Results Trial A - comparative team tasting.

Figure 16.9 Results of ranking based on a Kruskal-Wallis analysis - ranking team tasting.

Conclusion In the next step, the two trials are evaluated in sensory consumer tests. It is important to note that only when the stakes are very low we validate a product based only on team tasting. The session leader should always make this clear - team tasting does not replace classic sensory tools. 

The strategy is to pre-validate the prototypes with team tasting. The action standards defined are as follows ... 

If no differences are perceived, this conclusion should be validated with sensory checks. Method chosen Comparative team tasting... 

This method has been used for several years within Danone. At first, we only used descriptive team tasting with scale and a consensual debrief. Given the importance of the evaluation, we have adapted the method to obtain better responses and so provide more relevant support. Recently, we have created a specific dafa process tool to facilitate and harmonize the test. This tool is now available to all the Danone R D teams and is combined with training. On the whole, feedback has been very positive, and the method is constantly in deployment amongst the international R D teams for the Danone dairy and water divisions. The expected impact has been achieved. 

Secondly, we must also always ensure we communicate results in a specific way, and that we do not communicate team tasting and results obtained from expert panels and/or quah-fied panels in similar ways. Building specific software to process the data is of course well... 

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