Sensory expert assessor's learning practices at workplace: Competencies and contexts in sensory evaluation

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify competencies and learning contexts that are central when a standardized sensory expert assessor conducts food sensory evaluations in an authentic professional context. The aim was to answer the following questions: first, according to accessors, what competencies does sensory evaluation require? Second, what contexts of sensory evaluation do assessors report on? Thirteen assessors from three Finnish food companies were interviewed using semi‐structured thematic interviews to map competencies and development intentions and explain established practices. In the study, 42% of analysis units described individual evaluation contexts, 53% described collaborative interactional contexts, and 5% described collaborative knowledge creation contexts. The findings contribute to the explanation of how assessors learn extensively from each other in collaborative interactional and knowledge creation contexts. Assessors' learning practices and abilities to work collaboratively in interactional and knowledge creation contexts need to be ensured for the development of expertise. Practical applications Our findings suggest that an important aspect of enhancing learning and achieving consistent results in assessors' work is to increase collaborative and knowledge creating practices in sensory training, in addition to training individual skills. Such practices are embedded in daily practices, especially the cases when product defects were sought and discussed. Advanced practices included: learning, sharing, and reviewing both external and in‐house consumer panel feedback, developing methods to moderate small‐panel evaluations and developing a product vocabulary collectively between the assessors. These practices supported sensory expert assessors in developing their personal and collective expertise in the workplace.

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“…The third group consists of the experts, who are some of the most known wine experts of a given region or field. They train themselves regularly using different techniques to develop and maintain sharp taste and smell senses . Furthermore, they are highly motivated to become (and stay) recognized experts of the field.…”

Expert system of food sensory evaluation for mobile and tablet

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“…Regardless of the experience and degree of training of panelists, individual differences always arise in their scores of food quality, associated with sensory sensitivity, knowledge, and the subjectivity of the scales for sensory indicator measurement [2,3]. Therefore, the adequate interpretation and objectification of individual panelist scores requires the development of IT technologies for factor analysis of food sensory evaluation results based on mathematical statistics methods [4][5][6] and computer software for processing and visualizing data from sensory evaluation of a product [7][8].…”