Food Science Summer Scholars, Alden Riak and Alex Penano, presented their research projects on August 11th, 2017, at the end of the 10-week Food Science Summer Scholar Program.
Alden discussed the Artisan Cheese Descriptive Panel project. The descriptive panel was established in the spring 2017 to evaluate different cheese styles and rate them on a series of attributes, covering Appearance, Aroma, Flavor/Taste, Texture and Aftertaste. Over the summer Alden designed and conducted multiple training sessions with the panel and tracked the panel’s progress in order to reduce the variability in their attribute ratings.
Alex reported on the Organic Kale Descriptive Panel project. This is part of the Kale Breeding research program, led by the Horticulture/Plant Sciences in collaboration with Food Science’s Sensory Evaluation Center. Alex helped establish this descriptive panel by recruiting, screening and selecting prospective panelists. She designed and ran several training sessions on raw and blanched kale. This panel’s training is scheduled to continue into the fall of 2017.
Lastly, Alden and Alex collaborated on Exploring Applications of Virtual Environments (VR) on Sensory Evaluation. The students had to work out technical challenges when trying to adapt the VR technology to the sensory methods, for example–how to present the traditional sensory scales in the virtual environment, how to record panelist ratings on these scales, etc. Many in the audience participated in the study as test subjects and were eager to learn about the research design and findings.
We wish Alex and Alden all the best in their future careers whether they decide to pursue sensory and consumer research or not. We were very lucky to host them at the Sensory Evaluation Center this summer. Good luck!
