Rating of products through scores and free-text assertions:: Comparing and combining both

Experts and/or consumers frequently evaluate products by giving, jointly, liking scores and free-text comments. We present here a methodology, issued from an extension of multiple factor analysis, that allows for comparing and synthesizing both types of evaluations, the latter through the word counts. The application of the methodology to wine descriptions, included in a guide, underlines the interesting prospects that this methodology offers in sensory analysis, as practitioners commonly wish to simultaneously tackle sensory profiles and free descriptions provided by the consumers. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.