In times when the consumer assumed the role of protagonist, more conscious, demanding and in search of new experiences, food and drinks seek to provide pleasurable experiences to consumers. Giving sensory perceptions that positively stimulate our senses can be the secret to success in the food industry.
A sensorially accepted food adds value to your identity and meets the expectations of the consumer who seeks much more than an adequate nutritional composition. Given this scenario, the food and beverage industries have found in sensory analysis a strategic way to reach their market.
WHAT IS SENSORY ANALYSIS?
It is a science that causes, measures, analyzes and interprets reactions to the characteristics of food by using the senses of sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing to evaluate the characteristics or attributes of a product. This discipline of science makes it possible to study and unveil consumer sensations and perceptions in a thorough and deep way.
Aspects such as appearance, color, texture, odor and taste are carefully interpreted to understand what sensations and perceptions the product may awaken in the consumer and how they can be enhanced to provide a pleasurable experience.
The analysis of the senses has conquered the status of a key tool for the food industry to reach the levels of excellence in its products and meet the needs of consumers who are increasingly aware, attentive and demanding.
The recognition that the sensory quality of a product is not a characteristic of food, but the result of the interaction between food and man, emerged after 1970. It was recognized that sensory quality is a function both of stimuli from food or other consumption materials and of physiological, psychological, sociological and environmental conditions.
What are the objectives of sensory analysis?
Through sensory analysis, it is possible to identify flaws in the studied product and seek ways to correct it. To better understand the characteristics in which your product stands out the most and that can boost sales. It enables technological innovation, proposing new solutions, replacing raw materials, reducing costs with new formulations or changes in production processes. It helps to identify if there is a need for changes in the process, such as packaging changes.
- In research and creation of new products and definition of acceptability by the consumer
- Market monitoring with product map( Product Mapping ): It identifies the position of a product in relation to its competitors.
- In product reformulation projects:Variations of raw material, variations of the processing itself.
- In product life studies
- In the detection of foreign contaminants to the product
- In specifications and quality control
- In the control of finished productCheck for possible losses in the sensory quality of the product due to storage
The 5 senses in food
Color / Visa the
The first contact. It is one of the most important factors evaluated by the consumer when buying the product, because it is through it that the first impressions of the products are obtained.
- Color (hue, luminosity, saturation, uniformity)
- Size / shape
- Brightness / opacity
- Consistency / thickness
- Degree of effervescence
- Integrity
- Defects (spots, black dots)
- Granulometry
- And other attributes related to the expectation of visual texture.
It is the visual characteristics that induce the consumer to expect a corresponding flavor, in addition to preparing the other sensory organs for their own perceptions.
Sound / Hearing
This sense produces information during handling of the product, the bite and during chewing and swallowing. Foods have characteristic sounds, which are recognized by the consumer’s previous experience when they are consumed or prepared; being mainly associated with the texture of the food.
The high hardness and low cohesiveness of the food increases the perception of crispness related to crunchiness, the sound emitted when breaking or chewing and is an example of the hearing-touch interaction.
Texture / Touch
Each food has its own texture and, through it, it is possible to specify the quality and freshness of each one.
Touch refines information about the texture, shape, weight, temperature and consistency of a food product, in a set of perceptions that can completely influence the pleasure of eating.
The texture manifests itself when the food undergoes a deformation (when it is bitten, pressed, cut), and it is through this interference in the integrity of the food that one can perceive the resistance, cohesiveness, fibrousness, granularity, roughness, crunchiness, among others.
For liquid foods, such deformation is called fluidity; for semi-solid foods instead of texture, it’s called consistency.
Odor / Aroma / Smell
Odor is the sensory property perceived by the olfactory organ when certain volatile substances are aspirated (ABNT, 1993). These substances, in different concentrations, stimulate different receptors according to their specific threshold values. Many substances have characteristic notes, and foods can be composed of several of these notes.
Aroma, on the other hand, is the property of perceiving the aromatic substances of a food after placing it in the mouth, via retronasal. This property is essential to compose the flavor of food. Much of what we identify as “taste” is, essentially, aroma.
Smell is one of the chemical senses, as is taste. These two sensory systems, even though they are understood as separate and distinct, have an intimate connection.
Like / Palada r
It is the identification, through the taste buds distributed throughout the mouth, of the basic characteristics or primary tastes of food, that is, the acidic, bitter, sweet and / or salty tastes.
Perceptions of taste can be very particular. This is because people have different sensitivities to taste. And just like the odor, the taste can be developed with training.
Two characteristics must be taken into account in some foods (or ingredients), the first is the time of perception, that is, the time to be perceived by the taste. And the second is the residual taste, which remains in the mouth for some time after the food is swallowed.
Main Methodologies
There are two types of tests: discriminative and descriptive. The first is to identify differences between the samples, which can be quantitative or qualitative. For this reason, they are also known as difference tests , and can be used, for example, to check how a given food property varies over its useful life. Examples of discriminative tests are the triangular, paired comparison and duo-trio tests.
Already descriptive tests , as suggested by the name, are tests that seek to define the product characteristics (taste, odor, texture and color) accurately the intensity. Because of this, because it requires precision in the definition of different attributes, tests in this category require trained and qualified people to perform.
Color change
The gin brand Sharish offered a special edition of Blue Magic Gin to UK consumers in 2017, which changed from a vibrant bluish purple hue to pink when the tonic was added.
Cherry Cola flavor and effervescent effect
In 2018, in the USA, Mondeléz launched a version of Oreo cookies with a Cherry Cola flavor and the effervescent effect on their filling, to provide a sensation that reproduces the carbonation of the soda.
