The professional assessment of a product is called sensory analysis. The five senses play an important and distinct role in this process during an organoleptic test. A flavor emerges from the combination of gustatory and olfactory impressions.
• Vision provides the first information on the product’s general condition: shape, size, color, appearance, volume. It is the beginning of the test and influences – sometimes mistakenly – the next tasting stages.
• Smell is relatively undeveloped in man. It makes it possible however to assess and analyze odors in two ways: the scent (directly by the nasal cavities) and the aroma (by retro-olfaction, reaching the back of the throat).
• Touch. External tactile assessment: the shape, consistency, temperature and possibly the texture of the food. Internal tactile assessment: the mouth, lips and palate complement the first information received by sight and touch.
• Hearing, which can also be mobilized (crunching, crackling, cracking). The inner ear can perceive specific crunchy sounds.
• Taste: the tongue detects the basic flavors: salty, sweet, acidic, bitter, and others that are very typical such as menthol, pepper, anise, etc.
The professional assessment of a product is called sensory analysis. The five senses play an important and distinct role in this process during an organoleptic test. A flavor emerges from the combination of gustatory and olfactory impressions.
• Vision provides the first information on the product’s general condition: shape, size, color, appearance, volume. It is the beginning of the test and influences – sometimes mistakenly – the next tasting stages.
• Smell is relatively undeveloped in man. It makes it possible however to assess and analyze odors in two ways: the scent (directly by the nasal cavities) and the aroma (by retro-olfaction, reaching the back of the throat).
• Touch. External tactile assessment: the shape, consistency, temperature and possibly the texture of the food. Internal tactile assessment: the mouth, lips and palate complement the first information received by sight and touch.
• Hearing, which can also be mobilized (crunching, crackling, cracking). The inner ear can perceive specific crunchy sounds.
• Taste: the tongue detects the basic flavors: salty, sweet, acidic, bitter, and others that are very typical such as menthol, pepper, anise, etc.
