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Food Industry Tests Techno-Tasters to Judge Flavor

Read ArticleArticle Source: The Washington Post
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The expert taster sat silently in the brightly lighted room, surrounded by 53 samples of ruby-red wine.

Fifty-three sniffs and 53 sips later, the judgment was in: a hint of black cherry . . . some acid . . . a floral nose. Every one of the wines, the taster reported, was an Italian Barbera, and all were made from exactly the same variety of grape.

But there was more. The grapes used for 23 of the bottles were grown in one region of northern Italy, the expert asserted, while those in the other 30 bottles came from a different region -- a region, it turns out, just 60 miles from the first and featuring only minor differences in soil and sunlight.

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How good are these computers? For example, can they judge how well spread out marbling in beef is or just the amount of overall fat content?

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  • 1 vote
Reply#1 - Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:27 AM EDT
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