• compare similarities/differences in a range of dishes/products
• evaluate a range of existing dishes/food products
• analyze food samples for improvements
• gauge responses to a dish/product, e.g. acceptable or  unacceptable
• explore specific characteristics of an ingredient or dish/food product
• check whether a final dish/food product meets its original specification
• Provide objective and subjective feedback data to enable informed decisions to be made.

Why Use Sensory Analysis to Evaluate Food Products?

• Shelf-life studies
• product matching
• product mapping
• specification and quality control
• product reformulation
• measuring taint and off odour
• assessing product quality
• market viability

Where and how can the evaluation be conducted?

• Noise level should be kept low
• Room should be free of foreign odors
• Testing are should be well lit and ventilated
• Testing area should be easy to clean and disinfect (sanitation)
• Temperature and relative humidity should be constant and controllable
• Round table is used mostly for product development (e.g. launching new product; change in product formulation)
• Booths are widely used to provide an environment that prevents panelists from being distracted
  and interacting with other panelists

Who can be the panel members?

• Panelists (participants) can be trained to evaluate specific products (odor, taste, texture, and or visual evaluation)
• At time before training panelists are screened for sensitivity in order to remove from the   group of panelists people that may not have the ability to perform the sensory evaluation