Creating a Sensory lexicon
The five steps to creating your sensory lexicon.
Some recommendations on where to find starter lexicons, ideas for terminology, or help refining your own lexicon:
Your own company’s historical files: look through your company’s qualitive work with consumers, sensory napping exercises, previous panel documents, cutting notes, specs, QC documents for words that are commonly used to describe your products.
ASTM: already established and validated lexicons are readily available through ASTM (payment required).
Online & social media search: chefs, bloggers, scientists - many people post their tasting notes and experiences with products online, social media, YouTube, and more. Just be sure to avoid words related to preferences and words that can mean more than one thing (e.g. “creamy” or “spicy”)
Literature review: lots of scientific journals publish papers devoted to lexicon generation. Check out Journal of Sensory Studies, Food Quality & Preference, and the Journal of Food Science, just to name a few! The Meat and Dairy industries also have many published lexicons available (payment likely required for journal articles).
Talk with other members of your sensory team or reach out to sensory professionals! We can help you with a good place to start or create a lexicon for you to work from.