Selection of standards to reference terms in a cheddar-type cheese flavor language

Descriptive languages used for sensory evaluation characterize products in terms of their attributes (qualitative component) and attribute intensities (quantitative component) and are generally developed by a panel of assessors in isolation. Although many of the terms selected by panels are similar, their meaning can be different, thus causing interpretation difficulties. Reference standards which clarify the interpretation of terms can overcome such barriers to communication. In order to better align assessors' concepts of Cheddar cheese flavor it was decided to establish reference standards which represented flavor terms in a Cheddar cheese language. Twenty-one sessions were held, I for each individual flavor term, during which a variety of potential reference materials were screened for their suitability to represent the concepts. The 4 most suitable materials were selected for further evaluation during 21 subsequent sessions. During these final sessions, assessors first ranked and scaled cheeses for intensity bf each flavor concept and then scored the selected materials on unstructured line scales for their suitability as reference standards. Panel mean scores for cheeses indicated which of these demonstrated the flavor concepts, and for reference materials indicated which were most representative of each flavor concept. In conclusion, reference standards which illustrated the meaning of each flavor term and cheeses which represented the extremes for scoring these flavor concepts were selected.