Principles of Sensory Evaluation of Food covers the concepts of sensory physiology and the psychology of perception. This book is composed of 11 chapters that specifically consider the significance of these concepts in food sensory analysis. After providing a brief introduction to problems related to sensory evaluation in food industry, this book goes on examining the physiology and psychology of the senses. The succeeding chapters survey the status of methodology and appropriate statistical analyses of the results. These topics are followed by discussions on the problems of measuring consumer acceptance. Food acceptance and preference depend on human sensory responses. The remaining chapters describe the relationship between sensory characteristics and various physical and chemical properties of foods. This book will prove useful to food scientists and researchers.
The ?eld of sensory science has grown exponentially since the publication of the p- vious version of this work. Fifteen years ago the journal Food Quality and Preference was fairly new. Now it holds an eminent position as a venue for research on sensory test methods (among many other topics). Hundreds of articles relevant to sensory testing have appeared in that and in other journals such as the Journal of Sensory Studies. Knowledge of the intricate cellular processes in chemoreception, as well as their genetic basis, has undergone nothing less than a revolution, culminating in the award of the Nobel Prize to Buck and Axel in 2004 for their discovery of the olfactory receptor gene super family. Advances in statistical methodology have accelerated as well. Sensometrics meetings are now vigorous and well-attended annual events. Ideas like Thurstonian modeling were not widely embraced 15 years ago, but now seem to be part of the everyday thought process of many sensory scientists. And yet, some things stay the same. Sensory testing will always involve human participants. Humans are tough measuring instruments to work with. They come with varying degrees of acumen, training, experiences, differing genetic equipment, sensory capabilities, and of course, different preferences. Human foibles and their associated error variance will continue to place a limitation on sensory tests and actionable results. Reducing, controlling, partitioning, and explaining error variance are all at the heart of good test methods and practices.
The field of sensory evaluation has matured in the last half century to be come a recognized discipline in the food and consumer sciences and an important part of the foods and consumer products industries. Sensory pro fessionals enjoy widespread recognition for the important services they provide in new product development, basic research, ingredient and process modification, cost reduction, quality maintenance, and product op timization. These services enhance the informational support for manage ment decisions, lowering the risk that accompanies the decision-making process. From the consumers' perspective, a sensory testing program in a food or consumer products company helps ensure that products reach the market with not only good concepts but also with desirable sensory attrib utes that meet their expectations. Sensory professionals have advanced well beyond the stage when they were simply called on to execute "taste" tests and to provide statistical summaries of results. They are now frequently asked to participate in the decision process itself, to draw reasoned conclusions based on data, and to make recommendations. They are also expected to be well versed in an in creasingly sophisticated battery of test methods and statistical procedures, including multivariate analyses. As always, sensory professionals also need to understand people, for people are the measuring instruments that provide the basic sensory data. People are notoriously variable and diffi cult to calibrate, presenting the sensory specialist with many additional XV xvi PREFACE measurement problems that are not present in instrumental methods.
The ?eld of sensory science has grown exponentially since the publication of the p- vious version of this work. Fifteen years ago the journal Food Quality and Preference was fairly new. Now it holds an eminent position as a venue for research on sensory test methods (among many other topics). Hundreds of articles relevant to sensory testing have appeared in that and in other journals such as the Journal of Sensory Studies. Knowledge of the intricate cellular processes in chemoreception, as well as their genetic basis, has undergone nothing less than a revolution, culminating in the award of the Nobel Prize to Buck and Axel in 2004 for their discovery of the olfactory receptor gene super family. Advances in statistical methodology have accelerated as well. Sensometrics meetings are now vigorous and well-attended annual events. Ideas like Thurstonian modeling were not widely embraced 15 years ago, but now seem to be part of the everyday thought process of many sensory scientists. And yet, some things stay the same. Sensory testing will always involve human participants. Humans are tough measuring instruments to work with. They come with varying degrees of acumen, training, experiences, differing genetic equipment, sensory capabilities, and of course, different preferences. Human foibles and their associated error variance will continue to place a limitation on sensory tests and actionable results. Reducing, controlling, partitioning, and explaining error variance are all at the heart of good test methods and practices.
Laboratory exercises are a necessary part of science education. They enable students to better understand the principles discussed in lectures, and provide them with hands-on experience of the practical aspects of scientific research. The purpose of this book is to provide students and instructors with a time-tested set of lab exercises that illustrate the common sensory tests and/or sensory principles used in evaluation of foods, beverages and consumer products. The appendices will also include a set of simple problem sets that can be used to teach and reinforce basic statistical tests. Approximately twenty years ago the Sensory Evaluation Division of the Institute of Food Technologists sponsored the preparation of a set of exercises titled “Guidelines for Laboratory Exercises for a Course in Sensory Evaluation of Foods,” edited by one of the co-authors (Heymann). This book will provide additional materials from the second author (Lawless), as well as other instructors, in a uniform format that can be easily adopted for course use. Most importantly, the lab exercises will complement the flagship textbook in the field, Sensory Evaluation of Foods: Principles and Practices, 2E, also by Lawless and Heymann and published by Springer. Possible course adoption of the main text along with the lab manual should enhance the sales of these materials.
This comprehensive reference provides state-of-art coverage of essential concepts, methods and applications related to the study of consumer evaluation, acceptance and adoption of new foods and beverages.
From listing the steps involved in a sensory evaluation project to presenting advanced statistical methods, Sensory Evaluation Techniques, Fourth Edition covers all phases of sensory evaluation. Like its bestselling predecessors, this edition continues to detail all sensory tests currently in use, to promote the effective employment of these tests, and to describe major sensory evaluation practices. The expert authors have updated and added many areas in this informative guide. New to this edition are expanded chapters on qualitative and quantitative consumer research and the SpectrumTM method of descriptive sensory analysis that now contains full descriptive lexicons for numerous products, such as cheese, mayonnaise, spaghetti sauce, white bread, cookies, and toothpaste. Also new in this chapter is a set of revised flavor intensity scales for crispness, juiciness, and some common aromatics. The book now includes an overview of Thurstonian scaling that examines the decision processes employed by assessors during their evaluations of products. Another addition is a detailed discussion of data-relationship techniques, which link data from diverse sources that are collected on the same set of examples. With numerous examples and sample tests, Sensory Evaluation Techniques, Fourth Edition remains an essential resource that illustrates the development of sensory perception testing.
