THE SENSE OF SMELL IN FOOD QUALITY AND SENSORY EVALUATION

The sense of smell is the major contributing sensory system in the perception of food aromas and volatile flavors. Illustrations of the importance of olfactory sensations can be found in the literature on product quality defects and in the importance of aroma andflavor characteristics in driving consumer acceptability of foods. Assessing olfactory-mediated characteristics of flavors is challenging, however, for a number of reasons. There are wide individual differences in olfactory acuity, as suggested by the existence of specific anosmias. Panelists are often strongly influenced by the immediate context in which samples are judged. Developing a useful consensual language to describe smells in sensory analyses can also be difficult. In spite of these challenges, the human sense of smell is the ultimate discriminator of food aroma and flavor quality; instrumental analyses are a poor substitute. Even in cases in which chemical components of food flavors have been identified, these must be cross-referenced against human sensitivities in order to estimate their sensory impact.