DUAL FOOD QUALITY: COMMISSION RELEASES STUDY ON SENSORY DIFFERENCES IN FOOD PRODUCTS

Today, the Commission published the results of the second part of an EU-wide quality comparison of food products marketed under the same branding, a study conducted by the Joint Research Centre (JRC). The first part of the study, published in 2019, focused on differences in the composition of food products. It found differences - for about one-third of products tested - not immediately apparent from the front-of-pack information, but from the ingredients. The aim of the second part of the study, presented today, was to find out if these compositional differences can be perceived by human senses.

Today's findings did not alter what the first part of the study found: differences in food products did not follow a geographical pattern. At the same time, the results presented today demonstrate that sensory differences are clearly noticeable, where there are large differences in product composition. For example, significant differences in sugar content in breakfast cereals can be perceived as influencing the overall sweetness of the product. By contrast, when compositional differences were small, experts could not perceive them, for example, smaller variations in fat content in potato crisps. Overall, sensory differences were found in 10 out of the 20 products tested.

Summary:

The study was conducted as a pilot project, testing 20 products that had shown compositional differences in the first part of the study. Samples of each product were purchased in 5-10 different Member States. As the testers were specifically trained for such tests, it is likely that the average consumer may not necessarily sense the same differences. Whether or not differences could be detected by the experts, depending not only on whether the compositional differences were large or small but also on the kinds of ingredients used: a difference between various synthetic sweeteners in orangeade could be detected, whereas different natural sweeteners in carbonated soft drinks were not. At the same time, it should be noted that consumers do not base their decision to buy a product exclusively on the sensory experience but may also be influenced by other elements, such as costs.