Trained Sensory Panels

Sensory evaluation comprises a set of techniques for accurate measurement of human responses to foods and minimizes potentially biasing effects. There are three classes of test methods in sensory evaluation: (1) discrimination, (2) descriptive, and (3) affective. For a trained sensory panel, it is very important to train the panelists on how to isolate each factor and to focus on each independently of the others for evaluation of the property that is of interest to the researcher. This chapter focuses on that information to describe proper selection and training techniques. There are specific test protocols such as the flavor profile, quantitative descriptive analysis, and texture profile that can be found in the American Meat Science Association (ASTM) Special Technical Publication 758 (1981) and the spectrum method. The chapter focuses on a general model for use in most meat-science applications. This edition first published 2013