PROGRESS IN DEVELOPING AN INTERNATIONAL PROTOCOL FOR SENSORY PROFILING OF HARD CHEESE

The methods normally used by seven laboratories in Denmark, France, Ge rmany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (Scotland) to characterize the sensory properties of hard cheese were compared in a collaborative ring trial. Three strategies emerged. (1) Laboratories which routinely profiled foods (including cheese), derived an overview of the sensory properties of cheese using quantitative descriptive an alysis and a relatively limited vocabulary. (2) Specialist laboratorie s which monitored the quality of a restricted number of cheese varieti es accumulated a more detailed profile by using an extensive list of d escriptors, an essential element of this strategy was the use of refer ence standards. (3) One laboratory allowed free choice of vocabulary t erms by individual assessors from a pool of sensory attributes. Based on this experience, a consensus protocol for profiling cheese was agre ed among the seven laboratories and this was evaluated in a carefully controlled second ring trial. The new protocol was successfully implem ented and revealed an encouraging degree of agreement among laboratori es. As a result of these studies, an improved method for sensory evalu ation of hard cheese has been developed. Future enhancements of the pr otocol, by refinement of the sensory vocabulary and by the application of reference standards, are proposed.