Sensory panel consistency during development of a vocabulary for warmed-over ¯avour D.V. Byrne*, M.G. O'Sullivan, G.B. Dijksterhuis, W.L.P. Bredie, M. Martens Department of Dairy and Food Science, Sensory Science, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Rolighedsvej 30, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark Received 20 May 2000; received in revised form 30 August 2000; accepted 25 October 2000 Abstract A sensory vocabulary of 20 terms each with a corresponding reference material was developed over 7 sessions using pork patties derivedfromthemeatofcarriersandnon-carriersoftheRN  gene.Pattieswereoven-cookedat150and170  Candchill-storedfor upto5daystofacilitatewarmed-over¯avourdevelopment.GeneralisedProcrustesAnalysis(GPA)wasusedtoinvestigatesensory termsandtheirindividualusebypanellistsoverthesessions.GPAexplainedvarianceindicatedthatthe®nalvocabularydisplayed asimilaramountofinformationtothatoftheinitialvocabularyof42terms.Individualpanellistsscaleusewasfoundtoconverge over the sessions. Panel agreement on many odour and ¯avour terms appeared to be enhanced as term synonyms were removed in vocabularydevelopment.Samplediscriminabilitydecreasedfromsessions1±4,wheretermconceptswereverballycommunicatedto thepanel.Termreferenceintroductioninsession5causedalevellinginsamplediscriminabilityandareductioninagreement,most likely related to perceptual confusion. Subsequently, references enhanced both discriminability and agreement. Thus, it may be more useful to introduce reference materials earlier, if not in the ®rst session, of the vocabulary development process. # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Sensory vocabulary development; Warmed-over ¯avour; Cooking temperature; RN  gene; Generalised Procrustes Analysis; Pork meat 1. Introduction The term warmed-over ¯avour (WOF) was intro- duced by Tims and Watts (1958) to describe an o-¯a- vour that developed in cooked meats within the ®rst 48 h of refrigerated storage. Polyunsaturated fatty acids from polar lipids, particularly phospholipids are gen- erally accepted as the main substrate for the formation of oxidation products associated with WOF (Asghar, Gray, Buckley, Pearson & Booren, 1988; Pearson, Love & Shorland, 1977; Skipsted, Mikkelsen & Bertelsen, 1998). The development of WOF however, is not only due to lipid oxidation. Chemical instability of sulphur compounds and perceptual masking by the products of lipid oxidation lead to a reduction in perceived `meati- ness'withWOFdevelopment(Bredie,Ammann&Bult, 2000; Drumm & Spanier, 1991). Several studies have been carried out with aspects of cooking (e.g. method, temperature, time and end-point temperature) and their eect on WOF development (Einerson & Reineccius, 1978; Satyanaryan & Honikel, 1992; Schricker & Miller, 1983; Spanier, Vincent Edwards & Dupuy, 1988). High cooking temperatures have been reported as useful inhibitors of WOF by a number of authors. This preventive eect has been attributed to products of the Maillard Reaction (MRPs),areactionofsugarsandaminesthatisinduced at elevated cooking temperatures (Bailey, 1998; Bailey, Clarke, Kim & Fernando, 1997; Bailey, Shin-Lee, Dupuy, St. Angelo & Vercellotti, 1987). Carriers of the dominant RN  allele, discovered in Hampshire and Hampshire cross pigs in the mid-1980s have been reported to have higher muscle glycogen and water content but no dierence in lipid content relative to other breeds (Monin & Sellier, 1985; Naveau, 1986). The higher glycogen, found mainly in the glycolytic muscles of RN  carriers leads to a lower post-mortem ultimate pH (pH u ) vis-aÁ-vis non-carriers (EnfaÈlt, Lund- stroÈm, Johansen & NystroÈm, 1997). This pH u results in 0950-3293/01/$ - see front matter # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0950-3293(00)00043-4 Food Quality and Preference 12 (2001) 171±187 www.elsevier.com/locate/foodqual * Corresponding author. Tel.: +45-352-83174; fax: +45-352- 83210. E-mail address: dby@kvl.dk (D.V. Byrne).