Sensory Analysis

Formulating a successful food product for the market place is a difficult task with many obstacles to long-term success. Sensory evaluation is one of the tools that businesses use to understand their target market, define product concept, eliminate wasted effort during formulation development, resolve quality issues, and ensure long shelf life. Characterization of the appearance, aroma, flavor, and texture of your food product is critical for setting performance standards and evaluating progress.

The Food Processing Center offers sensory analysis and consulting across a full range of services including:

• Difference Testing
  • Duo-Trio
  • Triangle
• Preference Testing
  • Paired Comparison
  • Ranking
• Acceptance
  • Hedonic Scales
  • Attribute Rating Scales
• Descriptive Analysis (trained panel)
  • Quantitative Descriptive Analysis (QDA)

The sensory facility composed of a sample preparation area that can handle all types of foods. The adjoining panelist room has 8 individual booths to be used for consumer panels and there are facilities for training panels as needed by the client.

All sensory evaluation work conducted at the Food Processing Center is completely confidential and provides each client with a proprietary final report with the statistical output of test results and interpretation/recommendations on how this information translates to the bottom-line of your business. This information can be used to make decisions on ingredient substitutions, cost-reductions, reformulations, competitor evaluations and many other activities.

In addition to this subjective data from panelists, our analytical laboratories can also supplement that data with objective chemical analysis of your food product to aid in specification development and shelf life evaluation. By utilizing sensory data, our marketing department can also help you define a marketing plan and focus on areas of weakness in your competitors.

Expertise and Experience

Dr. Susan L. Cuppett provides the technical consultation and experimental design for sensory panels conducted at the Food Processing Center. She has over 25 years of experience as a sensory analyst. Her expertise as a lipid and natural antioxidant chemist provides her with unique insight into product rancidity and other degradation which may affect the sensory attributes of your product. In addition, she teaches the Sensory Evaluation class at the University of Nebraska and is a respected professional in the area of sensory evaluation.