The NC State Sensory Service Center has partnered with companies to conduct consumer taste test panels, providing graduate students research opportunities in the process.
According to MaryAnne Drake, director of the Sensory Service Center, the program has been active for more than 20 years. Drake said she has directed the program since 2001, which employs 18 full-time graduate students and several undergraduates as well.
Drake said many research projects at the lab are commissioned by local, regional and national companies. Companies pay the university to run tests on their products, and the money is put back into the program.
“The program itself fulfills the university mission of educating students and educating the future workforce, while it also engages stakeholders,” Drake said.
William Harwood, a Ph.D. student in food, bioprocessing and nutrition sciences, said the real-world experience and networking with different companies is what drew him to the program.
“You do a normal, graduate-study type of program, but also get that real-world, industry-related experience, and it is really unique to this lab,” Harwood said. “I would say the vast majority have been talking to these stakeholders and industry partners for years; four years or maybe more by the time they are done and graduated. They have a long list of potential employers by the time they are done.”
NC State students have an advantage finding a job after graduating from the program, according to Drake.
“Companies come from all over the United States to hire students out of this lab, especially because of this type of experience they have already gotten before they graduate,” she said.
Drake said the university holds taste tests three to five times per week at Schaub Hall. The tests usually happen in the morning, and students can participate to receive incentives such as gift cards.
“If you are in our database, you get sent a link,” Drake said. “You just receive an email saying, ‘Click on this link to see if you qualify,’ and then you will have to go through a process.”
Recently, the taste testing lab has been busy. Drake said sour cream and onion dip was tested last week, and the line went through the lobby of Schaub Hall.
“We are very careful that once we get around 50 or 60 consumers we keep account of how many people are standing in line,” Drake said. “We never want someone to stand in line and not have an opportunity to go through.”
She also mentioned the lab will lead different study groups that are outside the normal test.
“In the next four or five weeks, we are running a test for school-age children on some school lunch initiatives for the national dairy council,” Drake said.
Visit the Sensory Service Center website to learn more.
