Comparative training procedures to learn odor descriptors: effects on profiling performance

Three groups of ten naive assessors were recruited to perform an odor profiling of 10 orange juices using 8 odor descriptors, These panels differed on the way they learned each descriptor. Group 1R learned to match one descriptor with one external standard; group 3R learned to associate one descriptor with 3 external standards; group 0R defined by itself the 8 descriptors from a set of orange juices. Results showed that the use of one standard per descriptor seemed to be only efficient when the standard was typical of the odor perception in the orange juices. Learning one odor concept with 3 standards led to redundant use of discriminant descriptors and failed on the agreement among assesso…