Sensory Research

We pride ourselves on our roots in sensory science. Sensory science expertise is among our bench strengths that we bring to bear on discrimination tests and descriptive analysis.

Sensory research relies on participants that have special ability and training to detect or describe sensory experiences. This training distinguishes them from “ordinary” consumers. In sensory research, we are looking for an objective characterization of sensory attributes and sensory research participants are not selected to represent a particular consumer target, but are selected based on their ability to perform such tasks.

One example of a type of sensory test is the discrimination test, in which participants are asked to determine if a sensory difference exists among two or more products, without requiring the participants to identify the nature of the difference – which may be difficult if the difference is very subtle. These tests include the triangle test, the tetrad test, the difference from control (deviation from reference) test, and others. Discrimination tests are usually performed with individuals who have shown evidence of their sensory acuity and have qualified for participation in discrimination tests on that basis.

Descriptive analysis is another type of sensory research. Descriptive analysis is performed by a small panel of highly trained individuals who identify and quantify the intensity of the sensory characteristics of a product. These quantitative descriptions can be married with consumer data to yield very powerful models of which sensory attributes drive consumer perceptions and product appeal.

P&K creates and trains discrimination panels, ad-hoc sensory descriptive and quality control/quality assurance panels to a client’s specification. When client-dedicated panels are not required, we are proud to engage our partner Sensation Research to collaborate with us in in providing descriptive analysis. Sensation Research has decades of experience in descriptive analysis, with expertise across the spectrum of product categories, including food and beverage, cosmetics, fragrance, and more.