Monitoring panel performance within and between sensory experiments by multi-way analysis

Summary

In sensory analysis a panel of trained assessors evaluates a set of samples
according to specific sensory descriptors. The training improves objectivity and
reliability of assessments. However, there can be individual differences between
assessors left after the training that should be taken into account in the analysis.
Monitoring panel performance is then crucial for optimal sensory evaluations. The
quality of the results is strongly dependent on the performance of each assessor and
of the panel as a whole. The present work proposes to analyze the panel performance
within single sensory evaluations and between consecutive evaluations. The
basic idea is to use multi-way models to handle the three-way nature of the sensory
data. Specifically, a PARAFAC model is used to investigate the panel performance
in the single experiment. N-PLS model is used to test the predictive ability of the
panel on each experiment. A PARAFAC model is also used for monitoring panel
performance over different experiments.