When it comes to testing food, it’s all the senses that count, not just taste.

“That’s because there’s only about four things we can taste,” says Dr. Ken Prusa with Iowa State University. “Sweet, salty, sour and bitter.”

Which makes taste alone a pretty limited factor in the total experience of how we perceive a food. In fact, we use all of our senses when we judge whether we like or dislike food products.

Dr. Prusa is the professor-in-charge of the Sensory Evaluation Unit at ISU where a group of ag editors were trained to be “sensory panelists” during a workshop this week sponsored by Elanco Animal Health. We specifically learned to evaluate meat by tenderness, juiciness and flavor – more on that in the above post.

Listen to my interview with Dr. Prusa here:

Read more on the Beef Quality Center website.