Sensory evaluation of drinking water by consumer panels

The human senses play an important role in assessing the quality of food and of the environment. Particularly the chemical senses of taste and smell determine the pleasantness of foods and drinks and may provide a warning mechanism for the presence of more or less toxic contaminants. Even after the recent rapid development of powerful analytical techniques the human nose can easily detect trace amounts of chemicals at levels many times lower than the analytical detection limits. Although taste and odour assessment of drinking water has been practiced in many waterworks laboratories by small panels, relatively unreliable results were obtained and such sensory data played up till now only a minor role in the management of the water treatment plant. More sophisticated and reliable methods for sensory water quality evaluation are discussed. Special attention is given to the characteristics of the human senses of taste and smell, to which the methodology of sensory assessment should be better adapted. High numbers of observations on a sample are generally needed, for which purpose the use of large panels has to be realized. In this respect the help of large consumer panels is an alternative for the presently often used small laboratory groups. As an example the preliminary results of a large ongoing experiment of sensory water quality assessment by 2 consumer panels of 100 persons each in the Rotterdam area are discussed. Drinking water quality is judged at the consumer homes every week. The experiment started September 1979 and will be continued for one year.