Odor evaluation and discrimination of car cabin and its components: application of the “field of odors” approach in a sensory descriptive analysis

The various synthetic raw materials used into car cabins are potential sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Consequently, the odors commonly present in the interior of the car could be assigned to these sources, especially in new and parked cars. Sensory analysis remains the obvious tool for evaluation of perceived indoor air quality, despite of the development of new state‐of‐art chemical analysis. The aim of the current study is to present a sensorial tool, an odor evaluation method for car parts and car cabins. The selection of 13 standards among the 45 basic standards of the Field of Odors, as well as seven “custom” standards, was established. All of these standards are used as a common language to describe the nature of odor in a sensory descriptive analysis approach. The setup of these standards provides us objective and comparative data. Odorous fingerprints from car parts have been found, explaining the dominant odors perceived in car cabins. The experimental setup applied for a particular case indicates that mainly foam parts have the major impact on car cabin smell and present a masking effect on the odor of the other parts. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The use of polymer materials (such as foams, plastics, carpets, etc.), paints and adhesives into the car cabin implies the emission of numerous VOCs in the interior of the vehicle. These compounds are responsible for the “new car smell.” This research provides sensory terms and an odor intensity scale that can be used to describe the ambient smell in the car cabin, but also the odor from car parts or car raw materials. This information is useful to the manufacturers in understanding the odorous characteristics of their car cabins assembly, according to the raw materials used, and also to the car part suppliers, submitted to some requirements in terms of odor's intensity and nature.