Glossary

Sensory descriptor

A sensory descriptor is a label used to describe a specific sensory property of an ingredient. We differentiate between 4 types: 

• Aroma descriptors contain properties like ‘almond’, ‘cherry’ and ‘mustard’
• Texture descriptors contain properties like ‘crunchy’, ‘hard’ and ‘gooey’
• Taste descriptors contain the five basic tastes ‘salt’, ‘sour’, ‘sweet’, ‘bitter’, and ‘umami’ and three additional descriptors ‘fatty’ (or ‘oleogustus’), ‘astringent’, and ‘pungent’.
• Trigeminal taste descriptors contain taste sensations ‘astringent’, ‘pungent’, ‘cooling’ and ‘tingling’.