She's currently working on her Dr. philos. in the importance of word choice in sensory judgement. Doctoral candidate Marit Rødbotten has worked with sensory sciences for more than 35 years already.
"I shall never tire of this subject matter. I am so inordinately impressed by the profession sensory judges perform. We call them human instruments - they measure the intensity of sensory stimuli in an utterly objective manner," says Marit Rødbotten.
Words and feelings
Vocabulary is an essential part of sensory science. Marit Rødbotten's thesis focuses on the words that are used to describe the sensory properties of products (flavour, odour, appearance, texture and sound), and on how these words are used to identify product properties.
"When we describe sensory properties of game, we use expressions like stale and harsh. These expressions give negative associations to most people, but for us it's all about breaking down the words into ever more precise descriptions. The expression 'game taste' gives most people positive associations, and is therefore used to market products. To a sensory scientist, 'game taste' consists of many subsidiary expressions such as stale, harsh, liver and sweet," explains Rødbotten.
Expanding the Norwegian food vocabulary
"My many years in sensory science have left me with a feeling that we need much closer cooperation between the marketing divisions of the food industry and researchers in sensory science. When we hand over the results from our sensory tests to the industry, we include definitions of the words we have used. However, I feel that food producers would profit even more by discussing expressions with the researchers following the results from sensory tests," says Rødbotten. "Expressions such as perfumed odour or perfumed flavour are used to describe some types of apples, and rancid flavour is a correct way to describe mature cured hams. These are examples of how the use of precise vocabulary gives a thorough understanding of product quality, even though these may not be words that consumers are aware of in their own description of the same products. Consumers will probably consider these product descriptions as negative," says Marit Rødbotten. "We need to become more aware of how we can use our senses, and this should start in our early childhood years."
Supertasters
To many people, it may come as a surprise that we don't experience taste in the same way, but the truth is that the intensity of our experience of basic tastes is genetically determined. In order to become a sensory judge, you need to be a supertaster, and in order to find out whether you are a supertaster, you must be thoroughly tested.
"You and I will probably sense the taste of a half teaspoon of sugar dissolved in a glass of water. But in comparison, a sensory judge can sense a single grain of sugar dissolved in a glass of water. It's hardly strange that I find this human superpower fascinating!" exclaims Marit Rødbotten.
Marit Rødbotten will have her doctoral disputation on Wednesday 3 June 2009. The title of her thesis is "Importance of verbalisation in sensory judgement".
Research area
Sensory science
Further reading
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