Dairy products evaluation competitions

Abstract

Scorecard judging is a useful and practical tool for conducting the sensory evaluation of dairy products. Scorecards may serve as records for a processing plant or for routine and official use in the grading of dairy products (state or federal) and serve as the recording instrument for various county, state, regional, and national dairy product evaluation competitions. A scorecard is best defined as a tabulated list of the factors that contribute to or describe the quality of a product, with a numerical value assigned to each factor. The factors are generally arranged on a scorecard in alphabetical order, and oftentimes are categorized. For instance, the flavor attributes are commonly grouped at the document top, followed by an alphabetized list of body and texture attributes, with the appearance and color attributes listed at the bottom. Obviously, a scorecard for one product (e.g., milk) reads quite differently from a scorecard for another product (e.g., yogurt) due to the inherent properties and differences in the various products. A so-called ideal product is designated as a "perfect" score, which may be scored as "100," or "10" or another preset number. For instance, the "ideal" flavor scores on Collegiate Dairy Products Evaluation Contest scorecards are based on a score of "10"; body and texture and appearance and color scores are based on an ideal of "5." Deviations in quality from the ideal result in demarcations on the scorecard and demerits in the total score. In some instances, these scorecards may include data from instrumental, microbiological, and/or sensory analytical techniques. Additionally, more detailed scorecards may be used to evaluate dairy plant processing and sanitation practices or to more objectively determine product quality and/or shelf life. Although scorecards that include such data can comprehensively present or represent the relative quality of products, product compositional analysis protocols do not lend themselves to completion within a singular time period. Thus, "abridged" or student scorecards, which only include sensory analysis assessments, can provide meaningful sensory quality data in a single seating (Nelson and Trout, 1951). There are two main types of dairy products evaluation competitions: (1) those that reward dairy manufacturers for outstanding dairy processing and (2) those that reward student judges for their accurate sensory evaluation of dairy products. This chapter is devoted to describing various U.S. Cheese Competitions, the National Collegiate Dairy Products Evaluation Contest and the Midwest Regional Dairy Products Evaluation Contest. This chapter is not an exhaustive summary of all the various dairy products contests and sensory evaluations that take place in the U.S. and Canada each year. Readers should gain a greater understanding and an appreciation for what preparation, knowledge, and application of developed skills goes into the training, organizing, and competing successfully in dairy products evaluation competitions (Fig. 4.1). © 2009Springer-Verlag New York.