The flavor of horticultural products is important to consumers. That is why many growers and breeders have their products tested by the flavor panel of the Business Unit Greenhouse Horticulture of Wageningen University and Research. Due to the corona crisis, testing is mainly done at home with the members of the flavor panel. In the future, they may get help from VR glasses.
There are two types of flavor panels. First of all, the consumer panel: that tests the liking of a product. In addition, there are several different rained sensory panels. They distinguish a wide variety of flavor attributes. The highly trained panel members can identify and describe the different flavor attributes in products. These panels make use of a list of flavor attributes (descriptors), for example, juiciness or firmness.
Online training
Due to the corona crisis, many activities of the flavor panels can no longer physically take place at the location in Bleiswijk. This applies, for example to the trained sensory panels. The sensory panel training takes place online to train the sensory panel to accurately describe their flavor experiences. Half an hour before the training, the panel members pick up a package of products from the WUR in Bleiswijk, so that they are fresh during the online meeting. In the past year, for example, online sensory training was held on the products apples, carrots and beetroot.
Alternatives for visual assessments
Flavor is also a matter of perception. That is why a small test room supermarket has been recreated in the WUR building in Bleiswijk so that visual assessment can be carried out. Due to the corona crisis, the visual assessment was a challenge. Therefore last year a number of alternatives were investigated, namely: VR glasses (ie: Virtual Reality), a questionnaire with photos of the samples and a short visit to the test room supermarket, followed by an assessment at home. In the latter case, the products were collected by the panel members from the WUR building in Bleiswijk and then assessed at home.
For more information:
Wageningen University & Research
www.wur.nl