13 Apr 2026
Great texture and flavor aren’t happy accidents, they’re a desired result. While consumers experience food as a single moment of enjoyment, Puratos treats that moment as a rigorous, data-driven discipline.
Our Global Sensory Panel is a network of trained experts from across the world who specialize in the science of eating, driving the art of sensory innovation. They master the intricate nuances of taste, texture, and aroma, helping us shape delightful sensations that reach your customers every day, and captivate taste buds worldwide.
In this article, we unveil the secrets behind their expert techniques.
Flavor Innovation
At Puratos, our dedication to sensory innovation goes beyond mere expertise; it's a true sensory journey led by our Global Sensory Panel. Composed of trained employees from across our global network (including Belgium, Spain, China, Brazil, and Vietnam) this team performs sensory evaluations to objectively measure specific sensory attributes (such as crumb resilience) that determine a product's quality and, ultimately, its success in a competitive market.
While some industries use panels for visual checks, Puratos focuses heavily on taste and texture.
What is a Sensory Panel and how does it work?
Sensory characteristics are properties perceived while eating a food product (e.g. how the product melts in your mouth, how sweet it is, its texture and more). To bridge the gap between consumers' subjective likes and dislikes and the objective measurement of taste and texture, sensory analysis emerges as a crucial science.
Sensory analysis allows to translate consumer wishes, perception and liking into well-crafted recipes and process specifications. Consumers, being non-experts, often find it challenging to articulate the reasons behind their likes or dislikes. Hence, the use of specialized vocabulary and methodologies becomes crucial in discerning the exact ingredients or technical attributes that truly resonate with their senses.
To ensure results are as objective as possible, the panel operates in a controlled, neutral environment. At Puratos, this means a dedicated sensory lab featuring individual white cabins.
This isolation is crucial. It prevents judges from being influenced by their surroundings or the opinions of others. In these quiet spaces, our judges act as “measuring tools” for properties that no machine can perfectly capture. By setting aside personal preferences, they focus on answering technical questions about the product's profile.
This is challenging because humans spontaneously react subjectively to food. Learning to act as a measuring tool rather than a consumer requires extensive, specialized training.
Trained panel vs consumer testing: what’s the difference?
In sensory science, we use two complementary perspectives to get the full picture of human perception:
Consumer testing (subjective preference):
This is about spontaneous reactions.
To capture real-world reactions, we use the Sensobus, our fully equipped, mobile sensory analysis lab. Puratos uses it to travel directly into shopping destinations and points-of-sale, allowing us to interview up to 300 potential customers per day in a neutral, controlled environment.
By meeting consumers where they shop, we can test everything from taste preferences and packaging to pricing. We ask simple preference questions (e.g. whether they prefer product A or B) to validate a product before launch.
Because these participants are everyday consumers rather than industry experts, they provide the authentic real-time data that is then benchmarked against insights from over 100,000 consumers to ensure market-savvy decisions.
The Global Sensory Panel (objective description):
While consumers can tell us if they don’t like a certain product, they often struggle to explain why. Our trained panel provides the translation and description the consumers might often not realize they’re feeling.
The sensory panel is a group of people trained to distinguish and evaluate all aspects regarding taste, flavor, and texture of food products. These sensory judges act as measuring tools, using their senses to evaluate the products that cannot be instrumentally measured. Because they are trained in specific bakery and patisserie vocabulary, they can identify exactly what is wrong, whether a cake is too sticky, too dry, or has a poor flavor release.
By bridging these two analyses, we can pinpoint the exact sensory drivers that lead to a successful launch.
The risk of the expert bias
While it may seem easier to solely rely on internal product experts, doing so is a common pitfall.
Being an expert doesn’t necessarily mean you know what the broader market prefers. In fact, it can often lead to biased results. Internal experts may be influenced by their own technical knowledge or how things have always been done. In contrast, a trained sensory panel is specifically taught to set aside those biases and remain objective.
How companies use Sensory Panels
Sensory analysis is a roadmap for Research & Development (R&D) teams. Here is how these insights translate into business value:
Guided reformulation
When a recipe is changed (for example by reducing sugar or fat), the panel identifies exactly how the texture changes, helping manufacturers maintain the “original” flavor and texture. This allows manufacturers to launch the preferred product, without a high risk of it being rejected by consumers.
Benchmarking and positioning
Sensory panels objectively define your product’s profile against competitors to understand how it fits into local market expectations. This helps brands understand how their innovation fits into local market expectations, such as the preference for extreme moistness in certain regions.
R&D efficiency
While machines like texture analyzers screen large numbers of samples for hardness or resilience, the human sensory panel performs the final, complex evaluation to select the best versions for launch.
At Puratos, sensory analysis seamlessly bridges the gap between internal technical expertise and an in-depth understanding of consumer desires. This connection allows Puratos, and our partners, to make the correct decisions, refine recipes with precision, and launch products with total confidence.
