Abstract
It is typically recommended that panelists should refrain from wearing personal fragrances, such as perfume or cologne, prior to sensory evaluation. Interestingly, no study has been reported as to whether panelists’ perceptions of test samples could be affected by personal fragrances worn by themselves. The objective of this study was, therefore, to determine the effect of such a personal fragrance on olfactory performance. Nineteen untrained participants were screened, recruited for, and underwent the Sniffin’ Sticks test designed for measuring olfactory performances that included the odor threshold, discrimination, and identification (TDI). The olfactory performance tasks were conducted under three fragrance level conditions: (1) control (no fragrance), (2) just-about-right (JAR), and (3) excessive, with a preliminary study used to identify both the JAR and excessive fragrance levels. The results showed that the odor discrimination, odor threshold, and combined TDI performances were significantly lowered in the two conditions with the perfume fragrance, while the odor identification performance exhibited no significant differences across all three conditions. These findings provide empirical evidence that even low to moderate levels of personal fragrance can significantly reduce individuals’ olfactory capabilities, possibly subsequently altering the perception of test samples during sensory evaluation.
Highlights
There is a commonly held belief that participants should not wear any sort of fragrance prior to the sensory evaluation of test samples
Olfactory adaptation resulting from constant exposure to perfume fragrance is one of the two plausible reasons contributing to the diminished threshold and discrimination performances under both fragrance conditions
Connecting diverse areas of olfaction research with the results of this study offers a straightforward conclusion: personal fragrance, even at low to moderate levels, significantly lowers individuals’ olfactory capabilities, especially the odor threshold and odor discrimination
Summary
There is a commonly held belief that participants should not wear any sort of fragrance prior to the sensory evaluation of test samples. This condition, to have participants refrain from wearing personal fragrances such as perfume or cologne, is mentioned in foundational texts [1,2]; there is a dearth of research offering solid support to the idea that personal fragrance should be avoided within sensory testing. There has been earlier research suggesting that cigarette smoking and its residual odors could have an impact on the sensory perception of food samples [6], when we consider that more than half of adults report regularly wearing some sort of personal fragrance [7], it seems highly necessary to develop a solid understanding of how applied personal fragrances can impact sensory perception. It should be noted that perfume and cologne are not the only sources of personal fragrance; deodorant, shampoo, hairspray, and even laundry detergent, could be sources of fragrance found on consumers, meaning that half the population could be a highly conservative estimate of all consumers exhibiting such a quality
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