Sensory Science: Conducting Tests

This course will introduce the sensory evaluation laboratory and will teach you best practices for testing and documentation. We'll explore how various factors, especially the testing environment, can influence sensory experiments. Our main focus will be on two specific sensory tests: duo-trio discrimination and 3-product consumer testing. Through case studies, we’ll examine how these tests can address product challenges. For both test types, we’ll dive into how to develop an appropriate hypothesis, select products, execute a sensory test, decode collected data, and interpret the test results. Additionally, you’ll learn how to identify and select core and opportunity target groups of consumers. Each module in this course builds towards your final project where you will design a sensory test to conduct your own research experiment

• Explore how testing environment factors influence sensory experiments
• Develop hypotheses and execute sensory tests
• Analyze and interpret test results
• Identify core consumer groups
• Select opportunity target consumer groups

• Basic familiarity with the topic and its common terminology
• Readiness to practice through applied exercises or case-based work