Taste
It is important to be able to detect the basic sensory elements using taste. There are four basic tastes: sweet, sour, salt, bitter.
There is a close interaction between smell and taste; approximately 60% of taste is directly attributed to odour. When swallowing, air from the mouth is forced up through the nasal cavity into contact with the olfactory nerve.
Carry out sensory evaluation
Only the human brain can integrate all the sensations of appearance, aroma, taste, sound and mouth feel which contribute to the flavour of a food or drink.
Humans are more sensitive to differences in colour, aroma, flavour and texture than machines. After all, the final product must be acceptable to humans. When assessing a flavour you are not just evaluating an attribute but need to think about how the attribute affects the whole product.