Sensory testing is something that has long played an integral role in the food industry. It is a scientific measure of evaluation that is used in order to assess the reactions that occur in relation to the five senses – sight, smell, sound, taste and touch – when a food is presented to an individual. It is a method that has been adopted widely throughout the industry and there are many reasons as to why this is the case. Thus, let’s delve deeper into the benefits of sensory analysis…

New product development

When companies are developing a new product it is extremely important to gauge a reaction.

• Is this product going to draw in plenty of customers?

• Does it look attractive?

• Does it taste as good as it looks?

Every new product represents a risk. However, if the sensory analysis has gone well, the risk is minimised because you know you have a quality food.

Competitor benchmarking

In addition to this, sensory testing offers an excellent way of matching up your product with your competitors in the industry. Quality professionals will draw up a profile of your food good and they will also draw up a profile of the competitor(s) in question.

Through a comparison of the two you can see how you match up against those you are competing against in the industry.

Quality control

There is nothing more important than ensuring that all of your products are of an extremely high quality. This is where quality control comes into play. This method of testing is slightly different from the others in the sense that various batches of the product will be monitored. This is done in order to ensure that the level of quality is consistent across all batches and thus you can be certain that every batch of goods you send out will not disappoint.

If you use various suppliers to create your own product, and your testing has shown they have supplied food or even food packaging that is not safe, you can stop this before it hits the market and you can hire product liability attorneys to take action against the company for this too. This is why such rigorous testing is imperative.

Shelf life evaluation

Longevity is often the key to success in most businesses, yet this is especially the case in the food industry. After all, this is a field whereby it is always based on people’s tastes, very rarely does food relate to a certain trend. Sensory analysis will allow you to determine how long your product lasts – what’s its shelf life?

Investigation of a change

When you see a product on the shelf and it says ‘new improved recipe’ on the label, the likelihood is that the ‘improved’ part will have been discovered through sensory testing. A change in ingredient or the process of making the food in question will require testing to see whether it has a better effect on the consumer in relation to the previous offering. Essentially you are determining how this ingredient has altered the profile of your product.

When you take these five key points into account it is not difficult to see why sensory analysis plays such an immense role in the food industry today. Nevertheless, make sure you choose a company for sensory testing with great care. After all, you are relying on their methods and their results to give you an honest depiction and consequent forecast of how your product is going to perform.

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