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Code Bias
April 22, 2015A very interesting item in the Spring issue of the Institute for Perception Newsletter discusses the issue of Code Bias in product testing. Code bias occurs when the number codes on our samples, in themselves, contribute to the response or sample selected by the respondent. The example quoted is that from a Chinese research study. In China, the...
Temporal Check All That Apply
April 01, 2015Temporal methods are those that collect data on how the intensity of sensory characteristics change with time. They include Time Intensity, which tracks just one attribute; Progressive Profiling, where a group of attributes is rated at pre-defined time intervals; and more recently, Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS). In a TDS study, the...
Music and Food – How Do They Go Together?
January 20, 2015Have you ever wondered how restaurants choose the music that they play? Most likely it is just down to the personal taste of the restaurant manager, but has the choice of music ever affected your enjoyment of your meal? Further, do you think that the music has actually influenced the way you have perceived the tastes and textures of that meal and...
Similarity or Difference - does it matter?
November 17, 2014Recently we ran a very enjoyable one day Introduction to Sensory Evaluation training course for a key client. Like many companies, they run a lot of difference tests to determine the impact of recipe and process improvements. During the training day there was much debate about the actual objectives behind these tests. Often when running a...
Sensory Claims
November 17, 2014Claim Substantiation 67% of women over 45 say they enjoy celebrating Christmas with their families, while 95% of turkeys would rather spend the festive season getting away from it all! Do you believe those statements or do you think we made them up? It is not unreasonable to assume that any claim is based on some form of research and that this...
Putting Sensory in Context
October 20, 2014On 16th October members of the IFST's Sensory Science group gathered in Southampton for their annual conference. Entitled ‘Putting Sensory in Context', the day explored how the environment and presentation of our samples can influence the results that we obtain. To open we heard from Estelle Petit from the Institute Paul Bocuse, France, whose...