Multivariate Data Analysis in Sensory and Consumer Science

This book is about Sensometrics: the statistical analysis of data from sensory and consumer science. Sensory and consumer science is a broad field, comprising research in food, drinks, personal care products, tobacco, cleaning agents, etc. Before a product is to be launched on the market it is often tested by sensory panels. The analytical panels with trained judges assess the products on a great number of specific properties using sensory profiling techniques. In consumer tests the focus is on the acceptance of certain products or the preference for a specific product.

Following an introduction to sensory and consumer science and the special types of data abundant in these fields, eleven chapters address four themes in sensometrics: individual differences between the assessors in a sensory panel, the measurement level of the collected data and non linear analyses, sensory-instrumental relations, and time-intensity data analysis. The analyses are performed using, among others, Procrustes Analysis, Multidimensional Scaling, Principal Component Analysis, Canonical Analysis, Redundancy Analysis, and Biplots.