Sensory and Consumer Research
Sensory and Consumer Research Services are provided both by Nutrition and Food Research Center, NuFo, (former Functional Foods Forum, FFF) at the Faculty of Medicine and the Food Sciences Unit at the Faculty of Technology. We provide facilities and analysis services for profiling the sensory qualities of food, understanding consumer acceptance and preference, understanding the impact of multi-sensory environment on food perception and consumers’ food behaviour.
Our Facilities
Flavoria® Research Restaurant & Café
Flavoria® is a multidisciplinary research platform and, at the same time, a unique lunch restaurant, café, and snack shop. The restaurant has intelligent lunch lines and bio-waste stations to collect long-term data on people’s food choices and bio-waste amounts.
Contact:
flavoria@utu.fi
Multisensory Research Space Aistikattila®
Aistikattila®, or Sensory Pot, is a melting pot for all senses. It is an immersive multi-sensory space for research and teaching and for hosting innovation workshops, seminars and events. In this unique space you can create vivid multi-sensory experiences with the help of photos, videos, lighting, sounds and scents.
Contact:
flavoria@utu.fi
Sensory Laboratories according to ISO-8589
University of Turku has two sensory laboratories according to ISO-8589: one located in the premises of the Nutrition and Food Research Center in Medisiina and another in the Food Sciences Unit. Each laboratory is facilitated with separate sensory evaluation booths, a food grade laboratory for food development, a test kitchen for sample preparation, and a classroom for training the panelists. Both laboratories are facilitated with software for data processing.
The panelists are trained to evaluate products using different sensory methods (generic descriptive analysis, discrimination tests, etc.). Consumer tests are carried out with untrained consumer panels (hedonic responses, affective tests).
Current address:
Sensory Laboratory of NuFo:
Kiinamyllynkatu 10, Medisiina C3
FI-20520 Turku
nufo-info@utu.fi
Sensory Laboratory of Food Sciences Unit:
Itäinen Pitkäkatu 4 C, 7th floor
FI-20520 Turku
oskar.laaksonen@utu.fi