A trained sensory panel, without building one
The SensoExpert Lab is our panel: a measuring instrument, not a consumer group. It is selected, trained, calibrated and verified like any other piece of laboratory equipment.
When a client asks us to measure a product, this is the instrument.
A scale that does not depend on the next sample
A trained panel does not vote: it scores. Every attribute is measured against known reference standards — not against whichever other samples are on the table that day — and that anchoring is what turns an impression into a comparable figure. It is the basis of the Sensory Spectrum™ method the panel is trained on.
- Absolute, not relative
- A 6 for sweetness means the same in a yoghurt as in a biscuit, and the same this year as five years ago. Without that anchor, two separate sessions cannot be set side by side.
- Descriptive, not about liking
- The panel records what is in the product regardless of whether the taster likes it: describing and judging are two different measurements. How that profile is then read, attribute by attribute, is in Sensory profiling.
- Any category, the same panel
- Our panellists assess any food or beverage product, and they do nothing else: one panel dedicated to that alone. There is no need to build a new one to move into a different category.
The instrument is checked before every use
It is the least visible part of the method and the one that holds it up.
Control samples come first
Every session starts with known standards. What the panel reads is compared with what it should read.
Anything that drifted is corrected
If a panellist has drifted on the scale, that is put right before anyone touches the client’s product, not after.
An instrument that does not drift keeps its readings comparable: a reformulation can be measured against the product of ten years ago.
An instrument that has drifted throws no error: it gives credible, wrong numbers.
With that drift, a reformulation looks as though it changed something it did not, two plants look different while making the same product, and the category’s own history quietly stops lining up with itself.
Building a panel costs less than keeping one
It is usually the decision behind the first call we get. An in-house panel needs selection, training and, above all, calibration sustained over time — and it is maintenance, not setup, where in-house panels get abandoned.
Building your own
Selecting the people, training them and recalibrating them indefinitely. It pays off when you measure continuously and someone inside can keep that routine going.
Using one from outside
The instrument is there when you need it, with the scale already calibrated and with a category history a new panel would take years to build. If you also want your team measuring on the same scale, that is set up as a separate project.
Want the panel for your category?
Tell us what the product is and what you want to know about it. We tell you how many sessions it takes and what you will have in front of you at the end.