Eleventh International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Culinary practitioners need tools to systematically assess and improve the sensory quality and acceptance of the food they produce. Sensory science provides these tools to develop, revise and improve foods. However, in the culinary arts educations in Denmark teaching in sensory science is limited. We developed a teaching program for culinary arts educations, focusing on the use of central practices of sensory science in production kitchens. The teaching program was tested and developed in dialogue with teachers and students. The material consists of five theoretical and practical teaching modules that cover topics such as the senses, sensory vocabulary development and training, fast sensory methods, and factors contributing to palatability. 89 culinary students completed the baseline and follow-up test. The goal was to make students master sensory evaluation techniques and improve their ability to develop food that is liked by consumers. Results demonstrate a highly significant effect in both sensory knowledge and skills. The knowledge scores were significantly higher after than before the course (p=510-14) and the scores in the skills tests revealed a significant improvement of culinary students´ vocabulary after completing the course as measured by a higher number (p=110-3) and quality (p=7*10-37) of descriptors used to describe four different foods in an open description task. A higher number of descriptors used to describe foods by means of CATA emphasized these findings. We conclude that integrating a course on sensory science into culinary arts educations leads to significant improvement of students´ sensory vocabulary, knowledge, and skills.

Presenters

Michael Bom Frost
Associate Professor, Department of Food Science, Taste for Life, Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen, Capital, Denmark

Bat El Menadeva
QA/QC , Coop, Denmark

Marie Damsbo-Svendsen