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 minimized 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.