Sensory Perception and Definition of Flavour Complexity
B. Veinand1, A. Deschamps1, V. Mandon2, C. Adam3,
1) Givaudan International AG, Switzerland,
2) Givaudan, The Netherlands,
3) Givaudan France Arômes, France
Flavour complexity is often mentioned as a key parameter influencing the perception of savoury products. However, it seems that people have got a different understanding of what flavour complexity means.
The objective of this study is to assess whether the concept of Flavour Complexity can be consensually defined and objectively measured by Givaudan internal panellists.
Based on their own understanding of flavour complexity, flavour experts selected specific ingredients to be applied in tomato soup and combined in various ways so that different levels of flavour complexity could be achieved.
Givaudan internal panellists differing in their level of flavour expertise performed the test in order to identify potential expertise effect on the perception of flavour complexity. The test which included four ranking tasks of four samples was divided into two sessions to avoid any saturation effect.
As a first question, panellists were asked to define flavour complexity using their own words. They were then asked to successively rank the sets of samples, from the least complex to the most complex one, following their individual definition.
At the end of the test, panellists were asked to choose the flavour complexity definition that fits the best their own, among the two following proposals (collected from literature and flavour experts’ interviews):
- A complex flavour is confusing, difficult to recognize and describe
- A complex flavour induces a multisensorial experience (aroma + taste + mouthfeel).
Following this preliminary work, a new step will focus on the description, by sensory trained panellists, of the same sets of samples. Parallel to the objective description, other parameters which might explain flavour complexity, as duration and difficulty of the profiling step, will be captured. Further investigations will also help generalizing the findings to other kinds of applications.