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RELIABILITY OF SENSORY ASSESSORS: ISSUES OF RETENTION AND LEARNING
Author(s) -
BITNES JANNA,
UELAND ØYDIS,
MØLLER PER,
MARTENS MAGNI
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of sensory studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.61
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 1745-459X
pISSN - 0887-8250
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-459x.2008.00191.x
Subject(s) - sensory system , reliability (semiconductor) , product (mathematics) , identification (biology) , psychology , sensory analysis , task (project management) , applied psychology , cognitive psychology , computer science , statistics , mathematics , engineering , power (physics) , physics , geometry , botany , systems engineering , quantum mechanics , biology
The objective of this study was to investigate whether the sensory performance of assessors in a sensory panel may be retained after years of retirement from sensory work. The approach was to register previous performance in basic tastes identification tests and to compare with their present performance in the same tests, as well as in judging complex foods. The results showed that the identified performance was within the response curve of the performance over several years. However, there was no clear relationship between the performances in identification and in judging foods. The retired assessors who had been away from sensory work for several years showed lower performance than the active assessors did, but with larger variability within the group. The retired assessors performed better than the active assessors concerning the evaluation of bitter.PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The results from this study provides knowledge about how time without sensory training for a panelist might challenge the expertise obtained through many years as assessor in a sensory panel. Our findings showed that the sensory panelists were reliable despite several years of retirement. However, this was dependent on individual differences, attribute, product and method in question. This will have practical application in the food industry, where sensory panels vary according to the needs and available resources of the companies. The results open for the use of sensory assessors at infrequent intervals, but at the same time, they remind us that the assessors' sensory abilities might change for each product, attribute and sensory task.