Sensory panel consistency during development of a vocabulary for warmed-over flavour

A sensory vocabulary of 20 terms each with a corresponding reference material was developed over 7 sessions using pork patties derived from the meat of carriers and non-carriers of the RN⁻ gene. Patties were oven-cooked at 150 and 170°C and chill-stored for up to 5 days to facilitate warmed-over flavour development. Generalised Procrustes Analysis (GPA) was used to investigate sensory terms and their individual use by panellists over the sessions. GPA explained variance indicated that the final vocabulary displayed a similar amount of information to that of the initial vocabulary of 42 terms. Individual panellists scale use was found to converge over the sessions. Panel agreement on many odour and flavour terms appeared to be enhanced as term synonyms were removed in vocabulary development. Sample discriminability decreased from sessions 1–4, where term concepts were verbally communicated to the panel. Term reference introduction in session 5 caused a levelling in sample discriminability and a reduction in agreement, most likely related to perceptual confusion. Subsequently, references enhanced both discriminability and agreement. Thus, it may be more useful to introduce reference materials earlier, if not in the first session, of the vocabulary development process.