Great-tasting food products do not just appear out of thin air. Before a best-selling food or beverage product reaches the supermarket or retail shelves, it’s always subjected to sensory profiling and taste testing.
Sensory profiling is an essential part of the testing and development process of food and beverage products. It is an impartial research methodology that allows for a specific analysis of the sensory qualities of products by highly-trained experts.
So, how can sensory profiling help your brand?
What Is The Difference Between Sensory Profiling And Taste Testing?
A food product’s appearance, flavour, texture and odour largely determine its acceptability by the market. These attributes are crucial to the success of the product.
During the sensory profiling period, trained panellists quantify these attributes and assess them against crucial parameters. In doing so, they can help businesses create a balanced product that is more likely to be accepted by their target market. The sensory assessors do this by creating a specific sensory profile for your food product. You can then compare that sensory profile to new formulations and even competing products.
Taste testers, on the other hand, are often made up of a panel of volunteers who share their personal preferences. Whether they ‘like’ a product is useful, but it is not enough. A sensory panel comprises a pool of respondents who have a higher-than-average sensory acuity, and a greater ability to distinguish between different tastes and smells.
Why Is Sensory Profiling Important?
Sensory profiling is an impartial research methodology that can provide specific insights into your product. This makes it an essential part of food and beverage market research and development.
This sensory research allows you to create a unique product that is objectively different from those of your competitors. It uncovers the difference in attributes like taste and smell scientifically, rather than relying on an individual’s opinion.
Sensory profiling can also be combined with taste testing to give your product an edge. For sentence, sensory assessors can help you develop a sensory profile of a competitor’s product, which can be combined with taste tester’s opinions. This provides an opportunity to create a roadmap to a science-backed product that’s more than likely to win your target market’s approval.
Sensory profiling can also be used to monitor how changes in a product’s formulation affect its profile. The research can even be used to uncover quality issues in products too. This makes sensory profiling an invaluable part of high-quality product testing and development.
What Does Sensory Profiling Involve?
The sensory profiling process is relatively simple. First, your product is submitted to a sensory research company, like Wirral Sensory Services. We then compile a panel of experienced sensory assessors to perform a sensory analysis.
During the analysis, the product’s attributes will be assessed. A comprehensive report on the sensory factors like smell, taste, and texture will be developed to create a measurable profile. This sensory profile can then be utilised to develop an in-house alternative to uncover differences between existing product variants and competing products.
Why Choose Wirral Sensory Services For Your Sensory Research Requirements?
Wirral Sensory Services have been the leaders in sensory research for over 20 years. Our sensory profiles have helped leading UK food and beverage brands stay ahead of the curve.
Our panel of experienced sensory assessors is one of the best in the country. It has allowed us to provide accurate and comprehensive overviews of product changes and taste trends that have directly correlated with revenue increases.
Our sensory research has allowed our clients to maximise sales by developing the best tasting products. Contact us today to subject your new or existing product to our objective, robust, and industry-leading sensory research panel to bolster your chances of securing a foothold in your chosen market.
