2020 workshop - Kiel

Our 2020 odour workshop on product and material testing brought together a multi-disciplinary group of specialists from all over the world to present and share experiences relating to the field of odour testing, and to exchange future trends and needs.

“The is great event for newbies. Excellent exposure and hands-on practical added value to the participants.”  

We dedicated two days to cover a wide spectrum of sensory and molecular analysis methods, showing the almost endless possibilities of product optimisation and material testing.

Claudia Valder from Systema Natura kicked off the workshop with an excellent keynote address on the supply chain challenges of high quality herbal extracts and essential oils, with a special focus on the sense of smell from the perfumers’ point of view, and their challenging task of olfactory profile targeting.

In the following, Björn Maxeiner, director and head of P&M testing at Olfasense, provided a holistic overview of the possibilities in sensory and molecular odour testing and the most important principles to follow to achieve the highest possible quality standards.

The participants were then invited to take part in different practical lab sessions that were designed to provide skills, encourage participation and exchange information on everyday challenges and solutions from all odour-related perspectives, and included sample preparation & sampling, panel training, direct odour evaluation, comparative testing, indoor room evaluation, molecular screening, GC sniffing and many more.

The first workshop day was rounded off by US odour expert Michael McGinley (St. Croix Sensory, Inc.), who provided insights on the latest ASTM standard updates related to sensory evaluation of personal and homecare products. After that he took the audience on a short excursion into beer sensory testing. 

One of the key elements of successful odour testing is the selection, training and monitoring of the noses in question, as Olfasense expert Dr. Nathalie Nibbe highlighted in the opening session of the second workshop day, which also provided useful insights on the challenging setup of a GC sniffing panel to meet the stringent requirements of this sophisticated methodology. In her presentation, Nathalie also presented the Olfasense odour wheel with sniffing sticks for panel training, and invited the audience to test their skills in identifying odour characters during an interactive session.

Subsequently, Romy Jacobs, consultant at Olfasense B.V., provided a wide overview on analytical sensory measures and affective sensory methods, and their usefulness for different research aims and applications.

Before the participants could again get active in the second round of practical lab sessions, Olfasense GC specialist Dr. Luciano Vera gave a vivid presentation on the multidimensional nature of odour chemistry and olfactory perception and demonstrated how GCMS and GC sniffing can provide approaches to overcome this challenging complexity.

The event was concluded by the Olfasense expert Rita Ribau Domingues, who shared facts on the importance of sensory and consumer research on product development, and also provided an outlook on future trends, challenges and needs in consumer science. 

On behalf of the whole Olfasense team, we thank all participants for joining us in our 2020 Olfasense odour workshop on product and material testing. We hope the event was a rewarding and useful experience, filled with answers and actionable advice on your odour-related questions.