QUALIFICATION OF ASSESSORS IN FOOD PROFILE ANALYSIS AND OTHER NEW DEVELOPMENTS OF PROFISENS

Sensory analysis is a fundamental tool in food quality assurance. Beside consumer tests (that focus on the acceptance of products), trained panels provide much detailed sensory data on the intensity of the most relevant attributes. The analysis of descriptive sensory data is a very complex task of this science. One of the key issues is the reliability of the panel members in making decisions. The research group of BME and BCU has created a specialized software - ProfiSens - for food profile analysis. ProfiSens was applied in research and education, in designing and carrying out profile analyses by different panelists in hundreds of cases. Several times not only the food samples, but also the group of panelists were to be qualified. In our paper we discuss a new method based on geometrical properties of the profile polygon, which offers a fast way for the qualification of the assessors. We also often met the problem of willing to use earlier defined profile analysis scoresheets or even only some of their attributes. The solution for these problems is to create a DataBase, containing all the data of designed scoresheets, and to make possible searching and picking up any wanted attributes from the DB. We discuss our results in this field as well

ProfiSens - A PROFILE ANALYSIS SUPPORTING SOFTWARE IN FOOD INDUSTRY, RELATED RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

The Sensory Laboratory of Postharvest Department (Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration, BUESPA) has a specially designed sensory booth system which was established in accordance with the relevant ISO standards \cite2. The researchers of the Sensory Laboratory (BUESPA) and of the Department of Chemical Information Technology (Budapest University of Technology and Economics, BUTE) developed a profile analysis supporting software, the ProfiSens. The main functions of ProfiSens are the following: it creates kitchen lists for the sample preparation and score sheets for the assessors, collects data from the completed score sheets, performs statistical data evaluation and draws diagrams of the results. The language of the software is Visual Basic for Excel. The first version of ProfiSens has been used in the 2002/2003 academic year in research, education and industrial food tests as well. In our paper we discuss the results of each mentioned field and introduce the latest developments on the software

Method and model comparison by sum of ranking differences in cases of repeated observations (ties)

Significant progress has been achieved since the introduction of the new similarity measure the sum of absolute ranking differences (SRDs) [TrAC – Trends in Anal. Chem. 29 (2010) 101-109]. Empirical evidences were accumulated about scaling, selection of the reference (benchmark) vector, cross-validation and grouping of variables (features, models, methods, etc.). The theory has been developed including the repeated observations (ties): (i) The exact theoretical distribution (null distribution) for 4 < number of objects < 9 has been calculated for SRD treatment of random numbers (it’s a kind of validation, a permutation test). All possible reference vectors with ties imply different distribution. (ii) Above number of objects eight (n > 8) an approximation has been developed using the Gaussian distribution fitted on the SRD distribution given by generating of three million ndimensional random vectors. The validity and features of the SRD methodology with ties are illustrated using two case studies: evaluation of a sensory panel and ranking of financial indicators

A new VBA software as a tool of food sensory tests

Sensory testing is an essential tool for introducing new products to the market. To achieve reliable sensory data several factors should be controlled from the experimental design, through the coding of the samples to the proper conduct of the analysis. To improve the efficiency of sensory testing computer support of the process is necessary. The target of our project was to develop software, which supports the profile analysis testing method. The selection of the platform (Microsoft Excel) was motivated by its widespread use and easy accessibility. The preparation of the score sheets is performed on the panel leader's computer; afterwards the copies are moved to the panellists' Pes. The software can handle unstructured scales, structured scales, category scales and text fields. Data collection is followed by complex data analysis and graphic presentation