Sensory laboratory
Our experts
prof. Ing. Lenka Kouřimská, Ph.D.
Ing. Dora Petříčková
Ing. Petra Škvorová
Sensory laboratory
The sensory laboratory will offer a practical opportunity for students of food quality and nutrition to get acquainted with classical and modern methods of food quality assessment. Ten sensory evaluation cubicles will be used to evaluate foods and products produced on the school farm, in the gardens, orchards and food pavilion. However, the laboratory will also offer its services to the professional public: a trained panel of evaluators, evaluation of samples by difference tests to determine whether differences exist between samples, descriptive methods to identify the nature of sensory perception, or to compare and quantify the magnitude of differences, and consumer tests to provide information on consumer acceptability, popularity or preferences.
The ISO-standard laboratory will include online completion of the evaluation forms using tablets and evaluation of the answers using specialised Compusense software. The sensory laboratory will be closely linked to the experimental kitchen facilities for sample preparation and possible culinary modifications.
Quality assessment
Not only the nutritional and hygienic value, but also the sensory quality focused on taste, aroma, texture or appearance are important attributes that determine the success of food products on the market. The sensory laboratory is used to analyse these characteristics. In ten sensory evaluation cubicles that eliminate communication and interactions between evaluators, students will learn to evaluate food products through their senses, assessing the sensations of taste, smell, sight, hearing, temperature, tactile, kinesthetic and more. Each of the ten tasting booths is equipped with a serving window, water supply, spout and separate lighting. In addition, each cubicle also has a hinged special LED light panel for both color and sample illumination.
How does it work?
The samples will be prepared in a separate room in the experimental kitchen area prior to sensory evaluation, where they can be heated or otherwise treated.
our services
Subsequently, the samples in the sensory cubicles are evaluated according to
Appearance
Scents
Texture
Taste
Sensory analysis
The methods of laboratory sensory techniques include both classical tests standardized by ISO standards and new modern rapid methods. Classical tests can be divided into analytical, which include differential tests and descriptive tests, and affective, which include hedonic and preferential methods.
analytical
Differential
determine whether the difference between samples is perceived at a certain level of significance
Descriptive
qualitatively describe the samples evaluated by trained assessors
feeling
hedonic
determine the level of popularity
Preferential
keep track of which sample is preferred
Quick methods
Increasingly, modern rapid methods are being applied in sensory evaluation of foods, which seek to reduce the time of conventional sensory methods and the cost of training evaluators while obtaining acceptable results (most often in the form of so-called sensory maps). These rapid methods are either verbal or non-verbal and do not yet have official names in the Czech language. However, they serve as an alternative or complement to classical sensory methods and are increasingly sought after and used in research, in the development of new food products and in consumer behaviour research.
verbal methods
Flash Profile
CATA
non-verbal methods
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