5 Tips For Conducting Effective Sensory Research

Sensory testing is a valuable tool for the food and beverage industry which relies on respondents’ feedback to inform product design, development, and quality control. 

Coca-Cola, for instance, recently reformulated Coca-Cola Zero Sugar to mirror the original taste as closely as possible. The new recipe was improved following testers’ feedback gathered from sensory research.

If your clients want to design products that are more appealing and enjoyable for their customers, here are five tips to design successful sensory testing:

1. Select the right sensory method

The choice of sensory method depends on the research goal, the business challenges, and the specific questions you need answering. The most common approaches are descriptive analysis, discrimination testing, and affective or hedonic testing. In descriptive analysis, for example, panellists are asked to provide a detailed description of the sensory properties of the products, and this methodology is commonly used to understand which attributes are particularly important for consumers.

2. Recruit the appropriate panellists

Sensory testing requires a group of respondents that are representative of your client’s target audience. Sample can be selected using various criteria such as age, gender, location, or previous experience with the product, but sometimes an inclusion criteria might be that you need trained panellists. When this is the case, you should run pre-screening tests to measure their ability to detect and identify sensory stimuli.

3. Choose a frictionless environment

The research environment affects respondents’ perception of sensory attributes. Lighting, temperature, noise, odours, and cleanliness are some of the key factors to consider before choosing a location for your test. You might need smell control when preparing and cooking; or serving using specific glasses at a specific temperature; or to follow precise placement and lighting instructions. Regardless of your sensory testing needs, the ideal location should offer control over these factors and ideally be adaptable so it can be used across many different types of tests.

4. Ensure you have trained interviewers

The interviewer plays a significant role in walking respondents through their sensory evaluations, and not only explaining the testing procedure, and managing the environment, but also ensuring that the data is accurately recorded and can be used for analysis. Interviewers should receive in-depth preliminary and ongoing on-the-job training to ensure they adhere to the highest quality and ethical standards.

5. Make the most of technology

There are many advanced technological tools to ease sensory testing. In Australia, ekas, for example, has developed purpose-built software that supports sensory testing interviews on iPads, both offline and online (4G), offering all the functionality of online surveys but in any setting, and incorporating the use of images and videos, and enabling complex routing, etc.

To conduct effective sensory research, you will need a partner to plan and organise logistics, and manage your entire sensory research project – and this is where our expertise lies! Get in touch today.