The role is heavily focused on ensuring products meet consumer preferences regarding taste, texture, and aroma.
Key Responsibilities
- Sensory Evaluation & Development:
- Lead and execute end‑to‑end sensory evaluation activities—including detailed assessments of flavor, aroma, mouthfeel, texture, appearance, and aftertaste—to support new product development (NPD), reformulation, and formula optimization. Develop sensory strategies that de‑risk product launches by identifying off‑notes, stability‑related changes, masking opportunities, and flavor–matrix interactions across nutraceutical dosage forms. Provide expert guidance to formulators on sensory drivers and improvement pathways.
- Prototype Testing:
- Design, develop, and evaluate product prototypes through structured sensory panels and iterative testing cycles. Standardize preparation protocols, serving conditions, and evaluation criteria to ensure reproducible data. Translate sensory feedback into clear reformulation recommendations, collaborating with Product Development, flavor houses, and internal sensory panels to refine sweetness balance, bitterness blocking, flavor delivery, texture alignment, and overall product acceptability.
- Analytical Support:
- Partner with the formulation and analytical development teams to conduct shelf‑life sensory studies, including real‑time and accelerated conditions. Evaluate sensory stability trends (oxidation, flavor fade, texture changes, hygroscopicity, off‑note generation) and contribute to defining sensory end‑points for shelf‑life claims. Integrate sensory data with instrumental results (moisture/aw, volatiles, texture, particle size, color) to help predict product behavior and establish robust product specifications.
- Panel Management:
- Recruit, screen, and train internal descriptive panels; qualify external agencies as needed.
- Maintain panel performance KPIs (repeatability, discrimination power, consensus) and run refresher training/calibrations.
- Execute bench‑to‑plant sensory (pilot and commercial lots), including first production and CIP/ QIP projects.
- Consumer Insights:
- Interpret data from consumer tests to derive meaningful insights into consumer liking, drivers of preference, unmet needs, and sensory risks. Translate findings into actionable guidance for R&D, Marketing, and Quality—enabling stronger product–consumer alignment and evidence‑based decision‑making throughout the innovation pipeline.
- Regulatory Compliance:
- Ensure that all sensory evaluation activities, claim‑support requirements, and product testing protocols comply with FSSAI, BIS, Codex, and relevant international standards for nutraceuticals and functional foods. Maintain awareness of global sensory‑related regulations for label claims.
- Documentation & Reporting:
- Maintain precise documentation of sensory protocols, data, panel performance, shelf‑life results, formulation history, and experiment conclusions. Generate high‑quality technical reports, stability summaries, statistical analyses, and sensory risk assessments. Present findings to cross‑functional teams with clarity and scientific rigor, supporting decision‑making at each stage of product development.