It is imperative to produce high-quality baked goods and maintain consistent quality to achieve success. However, with numerous suppliers, it becomes challenging to ascertain whether ingredients meet consistent quality standards. To ensure the production of consistently excellent products, it is essential to select the right supplier. Zeelandia is the ideal choice as we are known for our reliability and quality control.
How can we be sure? Behind the scenes at Zeelandia, a silent but powerful force propels our journey toward excellence – our in-house sensory panel. Keep reading to learn more about how Zeelandia's sensory panel can benefit your business!
Our sensory experts assess products fairly and consistently, giving us the facts we need to make effective decisions.
The trick is to limit distractions and work together with one goal – to create delicious products for you and your customers.
Linda Mulder, Senior R&D Sensory Analyst Specialist
Unveiling our sensory expertise
2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the sensory panel. Zeelandia’s in-house committee objectively determines the organoleptic properties of its products. It consists of twelve professionally trained members who meet in one of Zierikzee's historic buildings, isolated from the hustle and bustle of the city centre, where they work with the utmost concentration. The panellists are able to perceive minute differences when it comes to appearance, aroma, taste, texture, mouthfeel, after-feel, and aftertaste. They can measure the organoleptic characteristics of products in objective detail using a variety of sensory methods. The panel also works with specific sensory software, with the panellists able to enter their findings immediately.
Linda presents you our Sensory panel.
Methodical sensory testing
The panel prepares for product evaluation by discussing and refining attributes in a sensory room. The attributes describe the product's organoleptic properties. This helps the panellists prepare to calibrate their senses before scoring the product's attributes quantitatively. The scores are statistically analysed with an objective set of measurements.
This trained sensory panel at Zeelandia’s headquarters in Zierikzee, the Netherlands, can test products from various regions and countries using universal terminology. Local preferences need to be considered but combining them with objective criteria can improve recipes and bolster new product development.
Engineering quality with our senses
Objective measurement: We use objective measurements such as appearance, aroma, taste, texture, mouthfeel, after-feel, and aftertaste to evaluate the quality of our products, ensuring consistent quality standards.
Reproducibility: We can reliably reproduce our results through our professional and trained panellists by training and testing them, ensuring that our products meet consistent quality standards over time.
Fine-tuning recipes and supporting new product development: Our sensory panel helps us adjust our recipes to make high-quality products and develop new ones. It gives us objective feedback on prototype quality. This ensures we meet your needs and maintain high standards.
Supporting product claims: Our sensory panel can provide objective evidence to support our claims about the quality of our products.
Benchmarking: We use it to benchmark our products against those in the crowded marketplace, ensuring that our products meet or exceed industry standards.
International applicability: Our professional and objective sensory panel uses almost universal terminology, making it internationally applicable. Therefore, we can effectively test products from other regions or countries. Our panel is capable of accurately measuring the objective factors of a product; however, it cannot determine consumer preference or market acceptability. By combining regional preferences with the objective data analysed by the trained sensory panel, you can enhance existing recipes or create new products.
Sensory testing for high-quality bakery goods
As an industrial baker, you can benefit from our in-house sensory panel because we can ensure our consistent quality of products, provide you with the best opportunities, and offer you the most competitive products.
All these benefits can help you improve your product offerings, stay competitive, and meet the needs of your customers by partnering with Zeelandia. Let’s keep exploring together to elevate your business.
