Sensory Analysis in Quality Control: The Gin as an Example

The quality of a food product could be defined by different ways from a widely manner to a more detailed one. One of the most usual meanings is define the quality as “in conformity with consumer’s requirements and acceptance, is determined by their sensory attributes, chemical composition, physical properties, and level of microbiological and toxicological contaminants, shelf-life, packaging and labelling”. In order to manage the quality of a food product most industries have defined quality control and quality assurance programs. In the recent years, a lot of companies have established a quality control/sensory program especially the food industry. Frequently the quality control of a food needs some multidisciplinary approaches. In the last years, the advances in instrumental techniques have been enormous, increasingly the sensitivity and selectivity of the analytes detection so the control of chemical composition or toxicological contaminants must be easier. In spite of these the perception of flavour product usually must be measured by sensory analysis. But only some of the food industry use a sensory program compared to other disciplines (Muñoz, 2002). However some companies confirmed a relationship between instrumental and sensory measurements. The sensory analysis is a scientific discipline in which man is a measure instrument. It is often defined as “a discipline used to evoke, measure, analyse and interpret reactions to the characteristics of foods and similar materials as they are perceived by the sense of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing” (Mc Ilveen & Armstrong, 1996; Piggott, et al., 1998). The latter has the same requirements as the chemical determinations, thus it means, it must be accurate, precise and valid. The discipline of sensory analysis use scientific principles drawn back from food science, physiology, psychology and statistics (Piggott, et al., 1998). The sensory quality is much difficult because it depends not only of food characteristics but of the consumer (Costell, 2002). Thus sensory quality could be product oriented or consumer oriented. Therefore, the role of sensory analysis in the food industry could be more important than it is actually. Sensory analysis have different approaches, requirements, and practical applicability and usually requires a lot of time, difficulties in analyzing data and the expertise are not always available. Is difficult organize a trained panel test, to have the adequate reference standards, and difficulties in focus the objective for the analysis so to perform the optimum sensorial test. If it’s possible the sensory quality control must be applied to the ingredients or in-process. For this it’s important that companies stipulate the specifications of the raw material in order to avoid