Sensory Analysis

If you have a product that is losing coveted supermarket shelf space or underperforming on your menu—or one that is doing well, but has the potential to do even better—it's time to call in the culinary experts.

Sometimes there's just an indescribable "something" missing that, once added, can make your product the top-seller in its category. Our chef-consultants have the meticulously trained palates and the rigorous sensory and taste-testing process that enable them to identify exactly what that something is. CIA Consulting can also help you with menu research and food product development—helping to ensure your product is a hit even before it hits the market.

Evaluating Your Product, from Aroma to Texture
More than a simple flavor analysis or taste testing, the CIA sensory analysis process evaluates your product against eight major descriptors and yields immediate, actionable recommendations. Here's how it works:

• You send us a sample—a current product or a prototype of a food product under development.
• CIA Consulting will assemble a panel of in-house subject matter experts—if our team is analyzing your baked goods, for example, we'll bring in the right people from our baking and pastry faculty.
• We will conduct a review of the sensory analysis descriptors with our panelists so they enter the analysis with a consistent definition of characteristics such as “finish” and “bite.”
• The panelists will conduct a blind tasting of your product—as well as others, if you would like a product competitive analysis—rating characteristics such as visual appearance, flavor, and mouthfeel, and recording their findings on sensory analysis score sheets.
• The CIA Consulting team will analyze the results and provide you with data such as a flavor “fingerprint,” a summary of reviewer comments, and recommendations for modifications to your product.

Take taste testing to a higher level—contact us to schedule a sensory analysis session.