Response context affects judgments of flavor components in foods and beverages

摘要

Panelists in sensory evaluation studies often make judgments about specific components of flavor (for example, sweetness) that are embedded in the complex, multi-dimensional sensory experience elicited by a food or beverage. Studies with multi-modal mixtures provide evidence that the variations in instructions and the response context have a significant impact on the way panelists make these judgments, Response alternatives set a context that influences an observer's approach to an evaluation task prior to the presentation of the stimuli. observers develop a strategy for dealing with the task, and the number and type of response alternatives represent constraints that the experimenter imposes on the observer. Studies of odor-induced enhancement of taste ratings and taste mixtures provide support for this view. A model for the judgment of flavor components is described which attempts to account for the influence of both perceptual and conceptual factors on ratings of multidimensional stimuli such as foods and beverages.