There has been increasing focus on food safety is the past decade and rightly so. But what about the quality of the product? If we are only doing micro testing but no taste testing we are going to start experiencing problems according to the experts.
Taste is important to consumers
According to John Stanton, a marketing professional and contributing editor to Foodprocessing.com, after 40 years' worth of marketing surveys, it's no shock that taste is important to consumers; however, the surprise is that in many cases, we find taste takes second place or worse to other factors.
“The one thing that has not changed in the 40 years that I have been in food marketing is that taste is the main reason people buy food. Survey after survey bears this out. Recently, the International Food Information Council Foundation conducted a survey focused on food and health and discovered that 87 percent of the respondents said taste was the No. 1 reason for purchasing specific foods. That shouldn't be too shocking. It is food we are talking about, not cars or computers.” You can’t really argue with that can you?
So why would any food company produce a food product that doesn't taste fantastic? Stanton lists pressure, reduction in costs, to make it simpler, to get it into the market sooner, to get cheaper ingredients and flavours, and even just to meet company innovation objectives. I think in the frenzy of food safety audits in the last 10 years, we have many products that are super safe but taste like cardboard.
Now don’t get me wrong! I am not saying food safety is not important! But I have been on many audits where there are large numbers of complaints indicating taste issues but the company does not have a taste panel or even the simplest taste test.
According to Stanton we have forgotten the basics of better taste means better profits.
So what does all this mean to you?
First and foremost it means that every food product must pass the taste test before any other attributes should be considered – ok we must make it safe but that is a given. Your food products should not taste good, they should taste great.
Stanton warns us that compromising on taste decreases the chances of a product's success and increases your marketing budget in the attempt to move an inferior product.
It is true that consumers are changing. They want more of this and less of that. As we all get involved with convenience, health, value, etc. we seem to forget that the real thing that consumers are looking for is not convenient food but tasty food that is convenient, or tasty food that is perceived as healthy, or tasty food at a great price. They want all of these things plus the best tasting food that you can possibly make. And that’s why you need a quality management system in addition to your food safety management system. To make sure you taste it first!
References
http://www.foodprocessing.com/articles/2013/market-view-taste/
This is such an important topic that ISO have a whole technical committee writing standards on it:
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_ics/catalogue_ics_browse.htm?ICS1=67&ICS2=240
You would be well advised to consult these standards. Taste is a subjective measurement and as such the people you use as your taste panel must be trained. The process of tasting must ensure the results are valid.
