The Road

Ahead for
Sensory
Research in
Food R&D

Custom content for Reveal Sensory by studioID

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R ESE T T IN G THE TAB LE
If “pivot” was the catchword for food companies
seeking to optimize their business models in 2020,
the operative phrase this year and next will likely
be defining the “new normal.”
After a year in which new-product development was slowed by
pandemic-induced facility closures, supply chain challenges and
a shift to focus on products that were most in demand, food
research and development is on its way back to pre-pandemic
patterns of activity, with a few wrinkles.
Supply chain disruption has lingered, forcing many companies
to seek alternative sources for ingredients, for example, and it
remains unclear to what degree previous trends in consumer
demands will persist going forward.
“It seemed like at the start of the pandemic, everybody was
just focused on how quickly we can manufacture,” says Allison
Rittman, corporate research chef at Culinary Culture. “It was
not about reformulating, or new product development, or line
extensions. It was just about filling up the shelves.”
That effort often overwhelmed potential opportunities for food
manufacturers to introduce new products, she says.
“Now we’re really seeing a shift back toward innovation,”
says Rittman. “It’s been fast and furious for the last few
months. People are now realizing you cannot stop new
product development for six months and then expect to just
jump back in.”
In terms of what types of products manufacturers are seeking
to develop, they continue to be driven by consumer demands
around bold flavors and ingredients, often inspired by global
cuisines. Those interests are overlapping with consumers’ desire
for familiar comfort foods, Rittman says, leading to a focus on
new products and reformulations within well-known cuisines
such as Mexican, Chinese or Italian, but incorporating new and
interesting flavors or ingredients.
Consumer demand for extreme spiciness has also evolved. While
for a time some consumers were seeking to push the limits of
heat, Rittman says those preferences have evolved.
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“Now it has become more about making something that’s
still spicy, but more nuanced,” she says. “It could be a
layering of chilies, and a layering of flavors, so that it’s not
just jalapeno; maybe there are some smoky chipotle notes
as well.”

Rittman says although consumers are seeking familiar

comfort foods as the nation emerges from the pandemic,
they continue to seek new culinary experiences as well.

“People are going to be really craving that new

innovation, and that next exciting flavor. They
are asking, ‘What’s something I haven’t tried?
Give me something new.’”

ALLISON RITTMAN
Corporate research chef at Culinary Culture

Sensory research and testing will play a key role in

food manufacturers’ efforts to develop products that
meet these demands, whether new products are being
developed to meet a specific need or existing
products are being reformulated to adjust to
consumer preferences.

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Why Sensory Research?

Descriptive sensory testing is one of the most useful product

testing methods available due to its versatility and ability to
address many different test objectives.

• Sensory attributes can be used to correlate with consumer preferences.

• Product development—do different formulations result in different perceptions?

• Which product attributes have the most impact on preferences?

• What sensory changes are detected during product shelf life?

• Ad claim development/substantiation—can a claim be made for a specific attribute?

• Will an alternative ingredient be perceived by the panel, and is that important?

• Can descriptive information be used as part of product quality monitoring?

Source: Janet Williams, Reveal Sensory

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S PE E D TO MAR KET
R&D professionals say pressure to bring products to market
quickly has never been greater. In today’s social media-rich
environment, new trends can emerge in a matter of hours,
straining supply chains and creating opportunities for food
companies to capture sales quickly if they can react in time.
Data from Food Processing magazine’s 2019 survey of R&D
professionals found that 43% of respondents said pressure
to meet R&D goals quickly was “steadily increasing,” while
another 8% said time pressures were “very intense” and
“steadily worsening.” Only 14% said they felt “little or no
pressure” to get products to market quickly.
of respondents said pressure
43 % to meet R&D goals quickly was
“steadily increasing”
“Sensory research has tools that can be
leveraged early on in the development cycle to
help facilitate product development.
JANET WILLIAMS
Director of sensory at Reveal Sensory
“Quick to market has always been a goal at the big companies,”
says Janet Williams, director of sensory at Reveal Sensory, a
sensory research firm. “They always look at how to shorten
the product development cycle and how to shorten the
identification of needs. Having a collaborative approach to
product development is the way to do it. Sensory research has
tools that can be leveraged early on in the development cycle to
help facilitate product development.”
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“Being the first to market with a new type of product
can set the standard for all products that come
later to follow,” Rittman says. She cited the example
of sriracha sauce, which was made ubiquitous by
Huy Fong Foods simply by virtue of being the first
company to gain widespread distribution.
“If it’s a product that has been unknown
to the general population, it might not
matter what the flavor profile is. It
becomes the gold standard, and then
everyone else starts to follow you.”
ALLISON RITTMAN
Corporate research chef at Culinary Culture
Speed must take a back seat to quality, however,
when it comes to being on the cutting edge of new-
product trends, she cautions. She cited the rush to
create gluten-free products as an example, noting
some of the earliest products in that space fell
short of consumers’ expectations in terms of their
flavor profiles and other attributes, and may have
alienated those shoppers from the category.
Why do so many products fail?
One of the reasons products fail is that the sensory
professional designs a product test using a small consumer
population and then makes inferences to a larger population,
says Williams.
Not every sensory test follows basic scientific methodology
to understand the underlying patterns of consumer behavior,
she said.
A few common errors in sensory testing include:
The consumer was not qualified as a product user;
The consumer was not qualified based on sensory skills; and
The consumer was not representative of the target population.
Sensory testing provides an unbiased source for determining
product attributes, Williams said.
“Companies that use internal sources may have blinders on,”
she says. “They are too close to it, and they lose objectivity.”
The danger lies in introducing products that have a sensory
defect, and turning customers off to the item when the product
could have been further refined in the development process.
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T HE D RIVE FOR
LOW COSTS
Perhaps an even bigger challenge than getting a product
to market quickly is the need for R&D teams to minimize
the costs of manufacturing a product. The cost pressures
that food manufacturers face can often lead to demands
for product reformulation as companies seek to strike
a balance between the desire to bring a certain level of
quality to an item and what their retail customers and
end consumers are willing to pay.

Often R&D teams’ best option is to develop a product

that they believe offers the optimal set of attributes
without dwelling on the costs of the inputs, Rittman
explains. Then they can begin to rethink the product
afterwards to account for ingredient and product costs
with the objective of replicating the most favorable
qualities of the original version.

“We have to figure out if we are going to use that one-off

ingredient that’s difficult to source, or hard to handle, or
requires frozen storage, for example,” she says. “Can we
find a way to do it a little bit differently? I think that’s
where the creative and innovative side of R&D comes in.”

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The drive for plant-based meat and dairy alternatives is
one example of a trend that continues to gain traction, and
is forcing R&D teams to look for ways to reduce the costs of
creating these products.

“How do we get that same texture, that same color, the same
flavor, and do it in a price-conscious way?” asks Rittman. “Some
of that is the other ingredients that we’re using to help with
those textures, or the sponginess, or the off-notes. Is it flavor
maskers? Is it textural agents? There’s a lot of really great
ingredients out there, and it’s a question of whether you know
they’re out there, and whether you know how to use them.”

This is another area where descriptive sensory testing can play

an important role in product development. Once a product
has been developed and meets a company’s desired goals for
sensory attributes, it can be compared to lower-cost versions
to identify any impacts that the reformulation or ingredient
substitution, for example, might have had on the new product.

The R&D team can then decide whether those changes

might have been meaningful enough to affect the
product’s marketability.

“In any reformulation effort, or any effort to change a product,

there’s a risk to manage, and that is the consumer notices a
difference and you don’t want the difference to be noticed,”
says Williams of Reveal Sensory. “How great that risk is
determines how you set up your testing.”

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T HE IMP ORTA NCE O F ‘C LEAN ’ LABE LS
Another significant trend in food manufacturing R&D is the
reformulation of products to be more “natural,” with fewer
artificial colors and flavors, and unfamiliar ingredients that R&D
teams have long relied upon to achieve goals around flavor,
color, texture, mouthfeel and shelf life, for example.
“I think consumers are becoming more savvy. I think they want
to know what’s in their food,” says Rittman, citing plant-based
protein as an area that may need some reformulation to
streamline its ingredients lists. “I think that’s a perfect example
of a category that’s got to move to a cleaner label,” she says.
“Whatever that next generation of plant-based is, it’s going to
be nutritionally better for you, and with a cleaner label.”
Again, the reformulation process to exclude certain ingredients
can incorporate descriptive sensory testing in order to determine
how different formulations of products compare with each other,
or with other products on the market.
“To be able to take a product to a trained panel
and say, ‘Give us your expert opinion on why this
tomato sauce isn’t a match,’ and to provide detailed
information about an herbal note, or the fattiness of
the mouth coating, that would be super helpful for
R&D teams.”
ALLISON RITTMAN
Corporate research chef at Culinary Culture
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T H E ROLE OF SENSORY R ESEARC H
I N ACH IE VING R&D G OA LS
A new environment in packaged food and beverage
product development/reformulation calls for new tools to
meet evolving demands.
Consumer preferences are changing in ways that are
predictable in some ways (globally influenced flavors and
ingredients) and unpredictable in others (whatever might be
trending today on social media), while food and beverage
manufacturers face ongoing pressures to move products to
market quickly and control costs.
Food R&D teams will seek out analytical and descriptive
sensory solutions that help them navigate these challenges
and others that will be needed in the evolving
CPG environment.
“Sensory is often referred to as small data
points for big decisions.”
JANET WILLIAMS
Director of sensory at Reveal Sensory
Today’s demands call for dependable,
high-quality sensory testing solutions that:
• Deliver results from professional sensory experts at
competitive prices;
• Turn around results quickly without layers of bureaucracy
and red tape; and
• Deliver reports and insights in a user-friendly format
that facilitates comparison of the sensory attributes of
different products.
Reveal Sensory offers food manufacturers sensory
testing services that can be used to gain access to
sensory data and insights that can be used to make
informed decisions throughout the product development
and reformulation processes.
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Why do food manufacturers
support sensory programs?

Usually management needs answers to questions such as:

• Do technological or ingredient changes impact consumer preference and purchase?

• Which sensory characteristics most impact preferences and purchase intent?

• What physical and chemical measures best represent important sensory measures?

• Which new products, flavors, etc. are best to go into a test market or retail space?

Source: Janet Williams, Reveal Sensory

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REVEAL Sensory performs Descriptive Sensory Testing for brands, private labels, and

manufacturers, supplying R&D and marketing teams in the food and beverage industry

with valuable data and insights to make informed decisions. Their quantitative descriptive

approach provides an overview of the appearance, aroma, flavor, taste, and texture of

products, describing and quantifying differences between products by creating a rich sensory

language and scoring samples. With an efficient operating model and by maintaining a

ready-to-commence trained panel, REVEAL Sensory operates at the increasingly challenging

pace set by internal management teams.

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