Analyses of sensory evaluation data using Principal Component Analysis (PCA)

Data analysis is the most complicated and ambiguous step in food and drink sensory evaluation projects. Accordingly, the least systematic and contemplativeness discussions have been made in scientific articles. The present article is the result of studying, teaching and research activities of the author in the past 10 years, in which a number of other valid sources have been used. This paper is intended to describe the stages of sensory data analysis and the use of the principal components in the visualization of sensory data and to present practical examples. The review of scientific literature indicates that many studies have used this approach for analyzing sensory data. But the analysis and interpretation of such data have not been described in details. Such information has not yet been published in Persian in scientific form. So, presenting further details on the PCA method provides scholars and students with access to the necessary information and makes a practical guide available for them in future researches. Therefore, describing the process of sensory data analysis based on the use of PCA and the related criteria for their interpretation is essential and discussed in this paper.