[Sensory analysis. Study of influence of assessors training duration on the panel efficiency]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the assessors group at different stages of training and estimate the influence of the duration of their training on the quality of the data obtained. The optimal training duration to work with descriptive methods, which is necessary and sufficient for reproducible evaluation of sensory properties has been determined. The training was conducted at three stages during 108 hours. It has been demonstrated that statistically significant differences among products can be already determined by assessors after 8 hours of training. By increasing the training duration the effectiveness of assessors was improved. Completion of training course led to a significant reduction in the mean square error for some sensory characteristics of the products and the variability of the scores.