Consumers of Extra Virgin Olive Oil Perceive Sensory Attributes in the Same Way as Trained Panelists?

The official sensory analysis of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) must be performed by trained evaluators, but the objective of this work was to verify whether consumers perceive sensory attributes of EVOO, in a similar way to the TP. Physical-chemical and sensory analysis was performed and the means and medians were tested respectively by Tukey ( p >0.01) and Kruskal-Wallis ( p >0.05). Homogeneity and reproducibility were evaluated in sensory analyses. This study analyzed 4 EVOOs from Serra-da-Mantiqueira in Brazil: 2 organic and 2 conventional. Twelve experts according to COI protocols, along with 12 EVOO consumers, aged between 20 and 57 years old, volunteered. Physicochemical and sensory results met the classification requirements for EVOO. In session 1, the “consumer panel” (CP) perceived the “GreenFruitiness” attribute in a non-differentiable way to the trained ones. In session 2, the participants have been trained and doubts were resolved. In session 3, the homogeneity of the CP responses had a z -score greater than the 1 from the “trained panel” (TP), and after the training, there was a flattening in the dispersion of responses when comparing the intensities perceived by the two groups. These results show that consumers’ perceptions perceive sensory go in the same direction as experts’ perceptions. Graphical Abstract