Variability of the representation of the variables resulting from PCA in the case of a conventional sensory profile

Sensory profiles are classically summed up by a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) performed on the table of means crossing products and descriptors. This paper proposes a way for evaluating the variability around the variables’ representation in PCA. It is thus possible to have an idea of the uncertainty of the position of each variable. To do this, the resampling methods used take into account the special nature of sensory data.