Flavor Services for Growers/Shippers
Growers and shippers optimize the flavor of their products through careful production and handling practices. SCS Flavor Management services help growers/shippers:
- Analyze the factors that affect flavor characteristics of targeted products: growing, harvesting, conditioning, storage, and shipping.
- Identify seed varieties and breeds that offer the best flavor potential.
- Formulate and execute a Flavor Management Plan.
- Determine if specific crops qualify for SCS’s Certified Flavor Rich™ program.
The Flavor Management Plan is intended to ensure that all production and handling procedures which can influence product flavor attributes are understood and addressed to optimize the final flavor of shipped products. The process for developing the plan is:
- Identify varieties that have already been shown to meet consumer expectations, or evaluate existing varieties against Consumer Acceptability criteria.
- Identify management practices (farming and handling) that maximize flavor characteristics.
- For new varieties, engage the SCS Informed Sensory Panel to create a Flavor Profile of key flavor attributes.
- For new varieties, establish Consumer Acceptability criteria.
- Conduct analytical testing (e.g., sugar profile, organic acids, phenolics) with findings correlated to Informed Sensory Panel results.
- Develop field-based specifications for minimum flavor, which are used to pre-qualify fields for “Flavor Rich” certification, and align these specifications with the flavor goals of interested retailers.
Flavor-Rich Certification
Once a Flavor Management Plan is in place, growers can seek SCS Flavor Rich certification for specific crops. During this process SCS will:
- Provide sensory analysis training to Quality Control staff at the grower/shipper distribution center.
- Score each lot against the established Flavor Profile for the commodity, and against Consumer Acceptability criteria.
- Send split samples to SCS’s Informed Sensory Panel, which is used to validate flavor findings.
- Collect monthly retail samples for quality control purposes.
- Conduct comparative studies (market basket studies)
For growers/shippers also interested in optimizing nutrition to identify varieties that offer the best nutrition characteristics, so that you can offer the best combination of both flavor and nutrition.
Request for Service
Applications
- Sensory Evaluation and Testing, English - US, MS Word
- Sensory Evaluation and Testing, English - US, Adobe PDF
Contact
Definitions
Consumer Acceptability
Consumer Acceptability is a numerical ranking of acceptance by a consumer panel of specific flavor characteristics of a food item.
SCS Informed Sensory Panel / Trained Sensory Panel
The SCS Informed Sensory Panel is an independent group of food experts who are trained to distinguish and rank a full range of flavor attributes associated with specific food items. SCS also provides sensory training to any of its customers who are interested in establishing their own in-house sensory panels (“Trained Sensory Panel”).
Flavor Profile
A flavor profile is a composite of the ranked individual flavor attributes or characteristics that together define the taste of a food item.
