How We Conduct Sensory Evaluations

Oct 20

Several times a week, we conduct sensory evaluations on our products, also knowns as tastings. Here's how we do it.

Multiple times each week, our production, sales, quality assurance, marketing and supply chain teammates meet in our QA labs and taste items we have made that day or ingredients that go into our recipes. “Sensory”, as we call it, helps us approve new recipes, notice seasonal changes in ingredients and check in that our recipes are consistently being made. When we receive customer feedback on something we have made, we are also able to pull a bag from that exact batch and taste it as a group during a sensory evaluation.

Heat Samples. Our QA team does a great job setting up our sensory evaluations. They pull samples of each of the items we need to taste, they heat them up to the proper temperature and then serve them in unmarked hotel pans. Almost every sample is shown next to an unmarked control sample for comparison. While tasting, we are not alerted to which sample is the control and which sample is the new recipe or batch.
Let’s taste. All relevant teams then meet in the QA lab and quietly taste a small spoonful of each item. We are looking for a difference in flavor, texture, color and consistency. The goal is to keep the tasting neutral, we do not want to influence our tasters by talking about the product or letting them know what the item or batch number is.
Evaluate as a group. Once everyone has tasted and kept their notes to themselves, to avoid influencing others, we discuss them as a group. The QA tech gives a background on the reason we are tasting the item. Maybe it’s because the thickness was our of spec or a new tomato was used in the recipe or perhaps we are just checking in on the item. Our QA teammate also reveals which sample we tasted was the control and which was the new production. As a team, we go through any differences we may have noticed and either approve the item or outline ways to hone the recipe further.
Determine next steps. Because many departments are present, they can each speak to different parts of the process to make the food. Supply Chain and R&D can speak to the ingredients used and the overall recipe, production can explain how the cooking process may have altered the finish product and QA can walk us through all of the specifications for the batch we are looking at.
Frequent sensory evaluations help us train our palates to be able to pick up subtle differences in flavor, aroma, mouthfeel, consistency and appearance. Each our of Marco’s items undergoes regular sensory evaluations and if you work on a co-pack project with us, you can count on your recipe being tasted often until our team is well versed in all of its characteristics. Sensory evaluations are important, but they can also be fun! Who doesn’t love tasting delicious food?!