Descriptive Analysis of A Complex Product Space: Drug-Beverage Mixtures

Abstract

Chemical submission is increasing by an occurring phenomenon that consists in administering psychoactive substances for criminal intent to an unaware victim. This diversion is usually achieved by adding a drug to the drink of the potential victim. This study aims essentially at providing a sensory method that would allow the detection of the sensory changes due to the drug. The complexity of this study stemmed from the large number of beverages and potential drugs that can be used for this ill-intentioned act. The alcoholic beverages and soft drinks studied here were selected as a result of an on-line survey, followed by a sorting task study, to which various drugs were added. A visual sensory profile was performed for all the different drug–beverage mixtures. The experienced sensory panel agreed on a lexicon of nine attributes that would allow the drug–beverage mixture to be characterized. A multivariate analysis was performed to study the effect of both the sample (drug–beverage pairs) and the panelists on the sensory profile. The pharmaceutical forms of the drug clearly impacted the following attributes: spotted surface, particles on the surface, suspended particles, cloudiness and sediment. The beverages also had an influence on the visual characteristics of the mixtures concerning opacity, color and effervescence. Practical Application Results of this study showed that visual sensory modification of drinks depends on both the drug and the beverage which suggests that the formulation of a drug must be designed to impact different sensory attributes. From a practical standpoint, both the sensory method and the lexicon presented in this article may be useful for researchers when developing drugs as these can be named according to the specific sensory changes created when mixed in beverages.