• Dr. Jeff Broadbent
• Dr. Jong-Su Eun
• Dr. Silvana Martini
• Dr. Donald J. McMahon
• Dr. Brian Nummer
• Dr. Marie Walsh
• Dr. Robert Ward
• Dr. Allen Young

Click on the following link to access UEN’s series on cheese science:

http://www.uen.org/tv/cheese/scientist.php

The Center for Advanced Nutrition (CAN), led by a team of internationally-recognized scientists with an impressive history of experience and expertise, fosters interaction and conducts research with private commerce and academic institutions at state, national, and international levels.

CAN offers laboratory and clinical nutrition services.  Please click here CENTER for ADVANCED NUTRITION SERVICES for more information.

Representative for CAN will be available at this year’s Supply Side West in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 12 and 13.  They will be  pleased to discuss how the Center’s services can  benefit your business or organization.

For more information about Supply Side West visit: http://www.supplysideshow.com/west/.

I look forward to seeing you there.

The panelist are being trained for a special project funded by the National Cattleman Beef Association (NCBA). 

Unlike typical consumer panels, descriptive panels are highly trained experts that researchers use to gather data similar to using analytical instruments.

Recent research has confirmed the umami taste by isolating it’s receptor in the human tongue, and that, as with the other basic tastes, certain variability occurs among individuals.  Since Umami is associated with the taste of aminoacids (proteins) an increased understanding of umami receptors may help nutritionists target the protein defficiency in malnourished populations.

If you are interested in reading more details about umami receptors, please refer to:

 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.27462N
“Perceptual variation in umami taste and polymorphisms in TAS1R taste receptor genes”
Authors: Q.-Y. Chen, S. Alarcon, A. Tharp, O.M. Ahmed, N.L. Estrella, T.A. Greene, J. Rucker, P.A.S. Breslin

Introduction and Purpose:

Sensory analysis is an essential analytical tool for developing or modifying food products, creating and optimizing food production processes, and ensuring consistent product quality. 

A well developed sensory analysis program within your company can save you money and help to ensure expensive product launches are not executed unless the product is ready.

 This course will emphasize descriptive testing and provide the information your students will need to operate a descriptive panel. It is important that we also provide your people with the basics of difference and acceptance testing so these topics will also be covered.

No pre-requisites are required for this course.  Topics that will be covered include:

OVERVIEW of BASIC SENSORY SCIENCE CONCEPTS

Sensory perception fundamentals

• Mechanisms behind sensory perception
• Biases associated with tasting food and beverages

Difference and Acceptance Testing

• Difference
  • Triangle
  • Two-out-of five
  • Duo trio
  • A not-A
  • Difference from control
  • Similarity tests
  • Simple difference test
• Acceptance
  • Qualitative
  • Quantitative

Set-up and Execution for Difference and Acceptance Tests

• Experimental design and objectives
• Location
• Test scales
• Sample preparation
• Data collection
• Data Analysis
• Data Interpretation

Descriptive Testing

• Types of descriptive testing
  • Flavor profile
  • Texture profile
  • Spectrum
• QDA
  • Use
•  Descriptive Panel selection, training, calibration, and maintenance

DAY 2 – PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION to TRAINING and DESCRIPTIVE PANELS

Practical exercise – Descriptive Panel Training

Emphasis can be placed on specific attributes of interest to your company including sweetness, metallic, umami, bitter, astringent, etc.

Section 1:

Training will be performed with reference solutions to ensure that panelists are able to correctly identify single components without the inference of extraneous flavors found in most foods and beverages.

Training in the five basic tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami will be provided, using the references detailed in Table 1.

Training in chemical feeling factors: astringency, heat, and cooling will be provided using references presented in Table 2.

 Table (EXAMPLE)  1: References used to train panelists on the 5 basic tastes

 Table 2: References used to train panelists on the chemical feeling factors

Section 2 :

This section will extend the ability to distinguish the 5 basic tastes and chemical feeling factors explored in Section 1 to foods.

References used in this section are summarized in Table 3.

 Section 3: Training in other attributes of interest to your company.

Panelists will be trained to detect, identify, and quantify attributes that are commonly present in your company’s products.

Some of these attributes that can be considered are summarized in Table 4.

NOTE: These should be discussed and confirmed prior to the training course.

Table 4: References used to train panelists on the attributes present in your company’s products

Section 4: Final training and practice using your company’s products

The practice session will provide a review of all descriptive panel concepts including:

• Panel training
• Rating scale
• Data collection
• Data analysis and interpretation
• Reporting

Ideally descriptive panels have 10 to 15 expert panelists that have been pre-selected and trained.

Panelists should be allergy free, not pregnant, and not taking medication.

Candidates must be informed about the type of products they will be testing and be willing to test such products.

Selection of the expert panel is based on a series of acuity tests that determines if each candidate panelist is able to detect, identify, and quantify specific attributes necessary to fulfill the mandate of the panel.

After panelists are selected they must be trained.

In this course we will assume that all participants are willing and able to detect, identify, and quantify sensory attributes of various products.

Training an expert panel usually requires 50 hours or more of initial work followed by regular maintenance training.

This training session will provide the basics that are needed for your company to develop a descriptive testing program.

Based on skills we will teach we recommend that your company conduct some additional training in-house based on the concepts you learn in this course.

Training will follow Spectrum Method References and Scales. This is the standard method for training descriptive panels.

 

• All courses conducted at Utah State University will be run through Utah State University.  Applicable university overhead fees will apply.
• Courses conducted off-campus or at a site you choose can be offered by Dr. Silvana Martini on a private contract basis.

 

Our research laboratory specializes in the physical and chemical properties of edible fats and oils.

By building scientific knowledge of edible fats and oils we can develop new food materials and processes that will lead to food products with superior nutritional and physiochemical properties.

Our research facilities also include one the leading Sensory Evaluation facilities in the United States.