Comparison of Taste Panel Results from Supermarket and Laboratory Panels

Laboratory taste panel tests on foods generate many useful data which are used/interpreted in a number of ways. One use is to get preliminary information on the possible appeal or level of acceptability of a particular food or food product to consumers. The reliability of such data is open to debate and it can be argued that the only way to get information on consumer acceptability is by doing a full scale consumer panel. The reasons for carrying out this study were threefold. Firstly, supermarket panels gave unexpectedly high flavour scores (in relation to fruit composition values) to late season tomato fruit in preliminary tests carried out in this laboratory (1). Secondly, there is little published information (2)on the direct comparison of laboratory and consumer panels, and thirdly, this topic was pinpointed at EEC agro-food workshops as one worthy of investigation. Having said this, the current study is only a modest start to a much wider range of tests on different food products needed to investigate more fully the relationship between laboratory and consumer taste panels. This study was carried out as part of the ongoing Agro-Food Programme (1984-1988) of the Standing Committee for Agricultural Research of the Commission of the European Communities (3) and provided useful data in an area where there is a paucity of published information (2).