Comparison of descriptive analysis and flash profile by naïve consumers and experts on commercial milk and yogurt products

•Flash profile is a fast and comparable method for descriptive analysis.•Consumers tend to use less specific attributes in flash profile than expert panels.•Descriptive analysis and flash profile showed similar results.•Flash profile can be used effectively with consumers and expert panels. Flash profile (FP), a ranking-based consumer-oriented method, has been studied as a rapid consumer profiling method that can be used as an alternative to conventional descriptive analyses, which require significant time, cost, and effort to get results. However, few studies have compared conventional profiling methods for different FP panel groups. In this study, we investigated the similarities between three methodologies, conventional descriptive analysis, FP by consumers, and FP by experts, on two commercial products: milk and yogurt. The results showed minor qualitative differences in the sensory attributes generated by the assessors between the three methodologies. The expert groups used terms related to product-specific attributes, whereas consumers used less specific terms. However, the overall results of the sample configurations and RV coefficients of the three methodologies were similarly high, ranging from 0.92 to 0.97 for both sample sets. These results highlight the applicability of FP when conducted with experts and consumers. This study showed that consumer and expert panels generated comparable sample configuration results using FP compared to the descriptive analysis conducted by trained panelists in two food matrices.