Richard Boughton (1), Dale Smith (1), RONALD NIXDORF (1)
(1) FlavorActiV Ltd., Chinnor, Oxon, U.K.
Current brewery practices of managing technical beer tasters use a
distributed system. These distributed systems impede the effective
management of technical tasters across the entire brewery structure.
This in turn leads to inefficiency and a reduction in performance of the
taste panel as well as the introduction of internal processing problems
within the brewery structure itself. Running and managing a technical
taste panel is a high-input, high-process endeavor, incurring
significant costs both financially and with actual manpower. This can
take the form of poor allocation of resources (both over- and
underestimating resource needs), from the effective identification of
the right training for poorly performing tasters to the associated costs
incurred by the actual procurement of said resources. The time consumed
by these processes can have an undue effect on the control of the taste
panel leader over the operation of the group, resulting in a reactive
approach to taster management. Analysis of these problems led to a more
effective approach to managing technical tasting panels. A managed
holistic solution was found to be an effective way of maintaining a
technical tasting panel, not just through improvement of results but in
the overall administration of the entire process. Every part of the
management of a brewery’s technical taste panel was taken as a whole and
treated as a single system. This single system provided all training
and management needs, and introduced a more controlled proactive
delivery of taster management through the use of targeted training,
proficiency testing, and specialist software. Thresholds were put into
place that would indicate if the taste panels required further training
with a range of different training solutions. Training would be
initiated automatically once these thresholds were reached at a level
suitable to maintain the technical tasting panel. The system also
eliminated the need to procure resources over an extended period of
time. This significantly reduced the amount of input needed from
breweries and panel leaders. Panel leaders could focus more effectively
on the technical taste panel operation and on achieving results.
Furthermore, administration was reduced by eliminating the need to
source resources on a frequent basis and the overall cost management was
brought under control.
Ronald Nixdorf is a Dutchman whose career has spanned academia and
industry. He started in sensory in 1987 at the Psychological Laboratory
of the State University in Utrecht, Holland, where he conducted
fundamental and applied research in the area of the chemical senses.
Ronald then worked for many years as manager and sensory scientist for
the Corporate Sensory Evaluation Department of Heineken R&D in
Zoeterwoude, The Netherlands. Since 2005 Ronald has been a key member of
the FlavorActiV organization. He has been most active in training
tasters and trainers and has implemented sensory technology in breweries
all around the world. Today, in addition to being the account manager
for some of the largest global brewery groups, Ronald also assists in
the development of markets for FlavorActiV across several continents.
With customers in more than 170 countries, FlavorActiV is dedicated to
helping breweries and beverage producers continuously improve their
products through the application of taster training and management
systems.
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