ABSTRACT
This introduction is in three parts. The first part lists some reasons why sensory tests are
performed and briefly traces the history of their development. The second part introduces
the basic approach of modern sensory analysis, which is to treat the panelists as measuring
instruments. As such, they are highly variable and very prone to bias, but they are the only
instruments that will measure what needs to be measured; therefore, the variability must
be minimizes and the bias must be controlled by making full use of the best existing
techniques in psychology and psychophysics. In the third part, a demonstration is
provided of how these techniques are applied with the aid of seven practical steps.
