Recruitment and training of a sensory expert panel to measure the touch of beverage packages: Issue and methods employed

Although formerly considered an intermediate product, packaging has become a main component of the product and largely contributes to its perceived quality. It is the first contact with consumer. For many years, the food industry has used sensory analysis techniques to improve the gustative and olfactive quality of its products, yet there has been very little application to the packaging. The present article investigates issues involved in the recruitment and training of a sensory tactile expert panel for beverage packaging. The study addresses two important questions: what are the sensory tactile attributes that are usable for packages, and do the hand movements performed by each expert have an impact on the sensory response? The first part presents the research of sensory attributes and the training of two groups on different types of beverage packaging (glass, plastic, aluminum bottles). The performances of both groups have been controlled. In the second part, the impact of hand movements (kind of movement, variation, and strategy of haptic exploration) is demonstrated by a three-step experiment.