A PROCEDURE FOR SCALING SENSORY ATTRIBUTES BASED ON MULTIDIMENSIONAL MEASUREMENTS - APPLICATION TO SENSORY SHARPNESS OF KITCHEN KNIVES

A procedure is derived by which sensory attributes can be scaled as a function of various physical and/or chemical properties of the object to be tested. This procedure consists of four successive steps: (i) de sign and experiment, (ii) fabrication of specimens according to the de sign parameters, (iii) assessment of a sensory attribute using sensory evaluation and (iv) derivation of the relationship between the parame ters and the sensory attribute. In these steps an experimental design using orthogonal arrays, analysis of variance and regression analyses are used strategically. When a specimen with the design parameters can not be physically fabricated, an alternative specimen having parameter s closest to the design is selected from a group of specimens which ca n be physically made. The influence of the deviation of actual paramet ers from the desired ones is also discussed. A method of confirming th e validity of the regression equation is also investigated. The proced ure is applied to scale the sensory sharpness of kitchen knives as a f unction of the edge angle and the roughness of the cutting edge.