Does the Mind Reflect the Mouth? Sensory Profiling and the Future

Descriptive Sensory Profiling methods have been used for over half-a-century. As the application of these methods obviously does not occur in a vacuum, we sketch the contextual basis of these methods. A unifying model, illustrating the tasks required from a sensory panellist, is presented with the aim of illuminating some major differences between methods. The history and main developments in the field of descriptive sensory profiling are outlined in a basic pedigree of methods. The authors suggest an approach to sensory profiling where taylor-made, problem oriented, methods are devised and used.

Keywords:

• descriptive sensory profiling
• future of sensory profiling
• sensory panels
• sensory psychology
• sensory science

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The work of author Dijksterhuis is part of the Føtek Program supported by the Danish Dairy Research Foundation and the Danish Government. Author Byrne acknowledges the ‘ConSense’ and ‘Sense-Index’ projects in relation to the present article and the financial support of the The Directorate for Food, Fisheries and Agri Business (DFFE) under the Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries. We thank colleagues for fruitful and critical discussions of our ideas and of this article. Especially we thank Karina Rossen for the work she did for a literature study as part of her M.Sc. Education. An anonymous reviewer is thanked for constructive comments on the article.

Notes

^a The ‘unstructured 15 cm line-scale’ may often contain anchors.

^b ? = No clear specification was found in the literature.