The impact of time standardising TCATA by modality data on the multisensory profile of beer

Temporal sensory profiles are increasingly assessed ‘by modality’ to investigate complex profiles and multisensory properties of foods and beverages. Panellists’ noise in temporal data caused by differences in oral and cognitive processing cannot entirely be removed by training or strict experimental setups. Therefore, time standardisation can be applied to align onsets of sensations and standardise temporal data. This paper compared raw temporal data collected in a preceding study performed by a trained expert panel (n = 10) using a TCATA by modality approach with the same data time standardised either by modality or with merged modalities. Binary data, durations and citation proportions were evaluated and subjected to Repeated Measures (RM-) Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Canonical Variate Analysis (CVA), and Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA) to investigate the differences between sensory properties and dynamic profiles. Time standardisation with merged modalities was able to reduce some noise related to panel repeatability from the raw data while also improving panel agreement indices in the taste and mouthfeel data. Time standardisation by modality reduced some of the panel heterogeneity, but distorted patterns in the flavour data. The main reason for distorted patterns in single sample data and resulting sample discrimination was the different impact of time standardisation on samples described by quickly fading versus long lasting sensations. No substantial effects were observed on the samples’ overall profiles in their sensory space. Time standardisation by modality could not reduce panellists’ noise in the data. Only a slight noise reduction was achieved in the time standardised data with merged modalities supporting the use of the raw data for further analyses. The findings indicated several differences between raw and time standardised data and highlighted advantages and disadvantages of pre-processing TCATA by modality data obtained to describe samples inducing complex, multisensory sensations.