Sensory research and Temporal Descriptive Methods: Where is this relationship going?

Abstract

It is well known that perception of food and drink is a temporal phenomenon. And it is under this premise that several temporal methods have been developed in the past 50 years trying to capture, describe and quantify these sensory changes occurring during food tasting.

More than one hand is needed to count the amount of multi-attribute temporal methods which have been developed since 1994, when the Progressive Profile was first published. From one bite to a whole portion, these methods have been used to evaluate product qualities, consumer behavior and food oral processing, among other challenges. But sometimes it seems that methods are developed faster than they can be validated.

In this presentation 363 research articles (from 1991 to 2022) using temporal descriptive methods were analyzed according to a previously validated protocol. A quantitative and qualitative synthesis of the results allowed the identification of trends in how methods were developed, refined, and disseminated. Some critical research gaps in establishing the validity and reliability of the methods were identified and discussed. Results suggest the need for general guidelines on how to implement the method, analyze and interpret data, and report the results.