Odor profile descriptive analysis

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The odour of a product often determines consumer preference and thus its competitiveness in the market. While classical consumer tests deliver sound information about the acceptance of product odours, product development’s demands for successful olfactory product optimisation go a step further: perception data needs to be applicable for developers, i. e. it should be an exact description of how specific odours are perceived. This is where descriptive analysis as a method of sensory product research comes in. Since the middle of the last century there have been various methods developed, all with one aim: to deliver objective and detailed descriptions of human’s product perception. However the scientifically validated methods almost exclusively deal with foods and beverages. There are only few reference studies on products which mainly owe olfactory perception for their success. This paper outlines the special features of human odour perception and evaluates the possibility to apply the most important methods of descriptive analysis to collect valid olfactory perception data. Coming from the basic problems with perceiving complex odours „Odour Profiling Descriptive Analysis“ (OPDA) is introduced as a new method to systematically create odour profiles. It considers odour perception-related problems and delivers valuable insights about olfactory product optimisation for product development.