Tastelweb© was created by Mr. Bertrand Thuillier, CEO of ABT Informatique, a French company founded in 1995. Mr. Thuillier is a professor of food engineering and sensory evaluation at Polytech Lille, AgroSup Dijon et EBI (Paris). In 2015, ABT introduced a new and innovative sensory test, called Pivot® Profile test.
Sirocco Food + Wine Consulting uses Tastelweb© for sensory data analysis and reporting.
Did you know that Bureau Veritas chose Tastelweb© to evaluate and rank Bordeaux wines from Saint-Émilion. Read the story here.
The triangle test is a discriminative method which enables the comparison of two samples to determine if an overall sensory difference exists between two products. This test does not require expert assessors but it is used to screen potential panelists to assess their sensory acuity. This test is ubiquitous in the food industry to determine the effects of slight changes in product formulation or process on the sensory profile of a product.
Quantitative Descriptive Analysis (QDA®) is a robust sensory profiling methodology. QDA® was developed by Tragon Corporation in collaboration with UC Davis. When implementing sensory profiling and QDA® methodology, expert panelists or judges perform multiple product evaluations by rating the intensity of sensory descriptors using linear scales. The methodology is most effective when the panelists enjoy a good consensus regarding the sensory descriptors under study. Statistical analysis makes it possible to determine panelist performance and to quantify sensory differences amongst samples. QDA® results are often graphically represented such as on a spider graph or PCA plot.
Pivot profiling is a rapid data collection methodology which requires that panelists assess and describe the sensory profile of a sample by comparing it to a control known as “the pivot”. This novel technique provides an alternative to QDA®, suitable to consumer studies. It was first introduced by Mr. Bertrand Thuillier’s team in a French study on Champagne. The method has also been tested on chocolate ice cream, honey and beer. The strength of the methodology is that it allows panelists to use their own language to describe differences in intensity between two products.
Development of the Pivot© profile method
Application of Pivot© profile method in the cosmetics industry
White paper: The Pivot© Profile Test or the intuitive sensory profiling method
Napping (from nappe, “tablecloth” in French) is a sensory evaluation methodology that requires expert panelists to group samples in a two-dimensional space according to how similar or different they perceive the samples to be from one another, placing samples which display similar sensory profiles close together and samples which are different further apart. The assessment can be conducted on a flat surface (table or workbench) or using a computer screen.
These tests are designed to collect consumer opinions (preference and acceptance data, target consumers’ likes and dislikes). They can be tailored to specific demographics such as children or an aging population. The data that scientists gather take the form of questionnaires and food sensory evaluations. Consumer surveys can be customized to suit the needs of your business. From long to short answers or using the 9-point hedonic scale, sensory scientists can use Tastelweb® to create modular questionnaires. Consumer data is analyzed statistically and graphed to generate immediate actionable insights.
Tastelweb© allows the sensory panel coordinator to organise panel training sessions. Samples varying in intensity are prepared and assessed by the panel. The assessment is treated as for a profiling study, but a review of panelists’ scores is performed instead. It is possible to pre-populate sensory scores in order to determine differences between panelist scores and expected results. Overall panel performance results can be studied as well as individual panelist’s results.
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Karine was the best part of this [SQF] course. It is clear that she is an authority in many processes based on the examples provided. I like that Karine went into detail and spoke of her own experiences. I really enjoyed how she kept everyone engaged.
We had the privilege of working with Karine at Sirocco Food + Wine Consulting for a gap assessment of our facility to SQF standards. Karine demonstrated exceptional expertise, provided a very thorough and insightful analysis, and really went above and beyond to take the time to clearly explain each requirement and provide suggestions. She developed a comprehensive, actionable report despite a tight timeline, and would highly recommend her services to any organization.
I have had the pleasure of working with Karine for over a year now. She helped our company pass our first SQF audit Ed. 8.1 with a score of 94. For our recertification audit, which was on SQF Ed. 9.0, Karine visited our site and performed a gap assessment. She was able to identify a lot of areas for improvement and with her help our company passed the audit and achieved a score of 96. Karine is really knowledgeable on SQF. She is easy to work with and extremely helpful.
We successfully passed our initial HACCP certification audit, without a single finding! While this seemed quite surprising, I then realized that this was due to the thorough gap assessment provided by Sean Xia at Sirocco Consulting, along with additional documentation support.
Sean inspected our facility and dug through all of our systems and records in such detail as to be able to expose all of our issues. We were then provided with our initial HACCP plan and a set of GMP documentation that we were able to edit and integrate with our existing documentation. But these documents were not just provided to us, they were each individually reviewed in a handover that provided further insights. And Sean also made himself available for future questions – such amazing support!
As we proceeded to work through implementation of the new GMP’s and to address all items in the gap assessment, I felt quite confident – albeit a bit trepidatious – about the pending audit. However, on the audit date, things went so much more smoothly than I ever could have imagined.
Thank you, Sirocco!
My company needed to create a more robust Preventative Control Plan than what we had, and I am so thankful to have found Sirocco Food + Wine Consulting. Their templates were just what I needed, and Karine and Sean were readily available to answer my questions and provide guidance when necessary. Karine and her team are highly competent, knowledgeable, friendly, and prompt to respond with help. I can’t recommend them enough!
Karine is such a wonderful teacher. As a student for the PCQI hybrid course I learned a lot from the virtual course but was left with a lot of questions. I was looking forward to the instructor-led course to get some more practice and answers to my questions. Karine was clear and thorough in her explanations. Her consulting business experience gave her a plethora of examples to draw from. I was impressed by her ability to address my questions and give me resources to continue my study. She is very well versed in the regulations required and is up to date on any changes or new publications that may influence your business. She was very accommodating to my needs. I highly recommend taking a class from Karine. She is an expert in her field. I left the class feeling confident in my ability to act as a PCQI and make a positive impact on my company.
I have been very pleased and satisfied with the SQF Bundle edition 9 developed by Karine Lawrence from Sirocco Food + Wine Consulting.
All procedures (templates) are professionally and beautifully written, saved us a tremendous amount of time, and enabled us to achieve our goal of gaining an excellent score in the audit.
Karine is very knowledgeable, and it has been a pleasure working with her. I highly recommend the SQF Bundle and her consulting services.
“Karine taught the PCQI course clearly, and at a good pace that didn’t feel too fast. She asked insightful questions that sparked discussions and helped broaden the expertise of those involved in the class, I would recommend it to others.”
We have been using the expertise of Karine in the implementation of the SQF program and have always been completely satisfied with her help and guidance. She did an excellent job by directing us to the right resources and to obtain an excellent score in the SQF audit. We have also used the SQF templates available with Sirocco Food Safety Consulting to write our SOPs to comply with the SQF codes. The Spanish templates were very useful in creating SOPs in Spanish to cater most of our employees. I’m happy to recommend the services of Sirocco Food Safety Consulting for your SQF certification needs.
“As a Faculty Instructor in the area of Food Technology, a key course taught in the BCIT programme, is sensory evaluation. Most of it is a hands-on approach with physically applying and calculating the correct statistics associated with the testing. When Karine reached out to me with the opportunity to try out a sensory software programme from Tastelweb©, it enabled the students to look at tests such as QDA and Pivot Profiling Tests in more detail. Its ease of use, ability to conduct on a smartphone and automatic calculation of statistical analysis was a winner with the students! This programme also created very good impactful visuals for easy interpretation even for the non-scientist. Karine was also available to provide backup support for set up and interpretation of the results. This programme provides the flexibility of usage without a contract, especially to a smaller business where cost is a big factor. In addition, exposure to software programmes like Tastelweb© helps build a good portfolio for students graduating in a competitive industry.”