Aprofood serves companies from the front to the end of the food industry, by providing full sensory evaluation solutions from raw material selection to final products using scientific and systematic sensory analysis methods. The purpose is to help customers maximize the stability of the sensation of food and to create distinctive products.

What is Food Sensory Analysis?

Sensory attributes are the most obvious expression of food quality and the most important determinant for consumers to purchase food products. Sensory properties of food can be divided into smell, auditory, visual, gustatory, texture and oral. Visual features include: color, size, shape, transparency, and surface texture. Auditory features include: sourness, sweetness, bitterness, saltiness, etc. Touch features include: hardness, elasticity, viscosity, and crispness. Sensory analysis of food is an interdisciplinary field built upon the foundation of food science. It uses human organs and advanced analytical instruments to evaluate and measure the sensory characteristics of food, and combines statistical methods for analysis and interpretation. Common sensory testing methods include descriptive analysis, difference testing and preference testing, etc.

Fig 1. Sensory evaluation of plant-based artificial meat. (Fiorentini M, et al., 2020)

Our Service

Aprofood provides a full suite of food sensory analysis services. Our services focus on the precise quantification and visual presentation of food sensory attributes, covering multidimensional properties such as color, odor, texture, and flavor, to enable reliable appearance quality and flavor evaluation, and to support product development.

Food Flavor Characterization Testing

Systematically evaluate the volatile compounds that affect food flavor and aroma experience, and analyze the causes of specific flavor or aroma characteristics. The technologies we adopt include gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O), and electronic nose technology (E-nose), which can accurately detect a large number of volatile compounds, including esters, aldehydes, terpenes, umami peptides, organic acids, sulfides, and ketones.

Food Texture Analysis Testing

We use instruments and methods capable of simulating human actions such as chewing and pressing to quantify the mechanical properties of food (hardness, viscoelasticity, cohesiveness), microstructure (e.g., starch gelatinization degree, protein network), and rheological behavior (e.g., viscosity curve, thixotropy). Our technologies include texture analyzers (TA.XT Plus), rheometers, and the acoustic emission method (AE).

Food Color Analysis Testing

This technology quantifies food color parameters (lightness L*, red-green a*, yellow-blue b*), color difference (ΔE), color space distribution (e.g., HSV, CIELAB), and fluorescence characteristics. Our techniques include spectrophotometers, colorimeters (Hunter Labscan Colorimeter, Minolta Model CR-410 Colorimeter), image analysis methods, and the Lovibond Tintometer.

Aprofood aims to assist customers in enhancing their products' market competitiveness, reducing quality risks, and meeting the demands for food safety and quality improvement. If you need a customized sensory analysis plan or technical consultation, please feel free to contact us. Our professional team will respond within 24 hours.

Reference:

1. Fiorentini M, et al,. Role of Sensory Evaluation in Consumer Acceptance of Plant-Based Meat Analogs and Meat Extenders: A Scoping Review. Foods. 2020, 9(9):1334.

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