What Sort of Panel Is Required for Acceptance Tests?
Consumer panels are the best group to use for evaluating the acceptability of a product or a range of products because they can be recruited to a quota that matches the profile of the target consumer population in terms of product usage, demographics etc. when using consumers for such tests, there are relevant codes of practice and guidelines to be followed.
An untrained panel of at least 50 people, possibly drawn from an "in-house" panel of company employees may on occasion be asked to evaluate the acceptability of a product or a range of products. However, this panel will not normally be representative of the target consumers, so should only be used to provide an initial indication of acceptability or as a "consumer guidance" study. As always this panel should be drawn from people who have no particular knowledge of the nature of the work.
Under no circumstances should a trained panel be asked to evaluate the acceptability or preference of a product. Training encourages assessors to be diligent in focusing on objective measurement and generating information on the full range of product attributes. They can no longer be expected to behave as naïve consumers and provide simple subjective value judgments.
After a detail discussion of sensory tests and evaluation let us learn about the role of sensory evaluation during the product life cycle.