Truth in Tasting

The uncertainty problem

Remember the blind men trying to describe the elephant? Welcome to conventional taste testing. Because how we describe what we taste depends on what we’ve experienced and how usefully we can express it. 

Traditional taste testing depends on choosing from specific descriptors. This means unknown flavors—liked or disliked—get approximated into defined answers; Or missed entirely. So an unusual lemonade becomes “lemon” and “sugar,” completely missing its distinctive clover honey component. Specific choices yield paradoxically imprecise results and doing more tasting panels only reinforces them.

The shifted paradigm

Faced with a nearly impossible problem, Gastrograph AI used Artificial Intel­ligence to build a tremendously intricate solution. In a groundbreaking first, our model takes into account people’s experience of tasting. Factoring in both exposure and unfa­m­iliarity, we can infinitely accommodate the accuracy or inaccuracy of flavor descriptions. Just as other technologies can ID faces, ours can ID flavors so that we can predict the presence of poorly or un-identified tastes. One person’s “sweet” can be another’s “honey,” and both can accurately indicate agave.

Make tastebuds smarter

Rather than forcing people to describe flavors with predetermined responses, Gastrograph AI effectively connects those people to an expert translator. Drawing on input from more than a billion cohorts, the AI can precisely interpret what someone means, even if they have no idea how to express it.

Collect once, predict anywhere

Harnessing the largest sensory database in the industry to resources like hierarchical modeling allows every response to build on our wealth of data and past predictions—yielding greater accuracy with fewer data all the time. We can use a handful of responses to predict reception around the globe. 

Capitalize on results

By “learning” exactly what attracts or displeases people, the AI can gauge viability, propose optimization, and even suggest new product opportunities—with discriminators ranging from age and sex to food occasion. This enables companies to focus energy and capital more productively than ever before to adjust, improve or branch out their product lines. 

Create delight

Soft drinks to hard liquor, pizza to peanut butter, we can reveal how people really feel about your product or concept. And why. Gastorgraph AI can give you the confidence to integrate flavors, tastes, and textures that will delight (and with new products, surprise) consumers around the globe. Let us help you discover the value of truth in tasting.  Just reach out.