A crucial factor in man’s relationship to food is his ability to perceive flavors and aromas. This area of study is known as sensory analysis. The ability to taste and smell is strongly related to experiences, learning and memories. The sensory pays attention to how we communicate and relate to the perceived taste quality. Taste and values are important factors in practice and a common vocabulary to express how taste is perceived is of great importance within a social group.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze meaning and importance of sensory vocabulary for school meals within groups of students and kitchen staff by using a semantic frame model. The analysis aims at highlighting different semantic aspects of the vocabulary, such as the inherent conceptual patterns of the words, their semantic domains and the specific-general dimension. The study further aims to uncover how a semantic frame analysis could be used to expand and develop sensory vocabularies among groups of actors to communicate values and sensory qualities of school meals.
Groups of students and kitchen staffs at two elementary schools and one high school in Sweden assessed the same lunch meal for the sensory domains of appearance, odor, taste and texture. The vocabulary (language and words) they used were then evaluated according to semantic frame theory.
Preliminary results show that the vocabulary could be organized into different sensory dimensions such as appearance, texture, flavor, basic taste and odor. Within all dimensions, both hedonics as well as descriptive sensory descriptors was used. Furthermore, the study recognized that vocabulary used by kitchen staffs were mainly related to the technical aspects of cooking techniques. The findings show that the conceptual profiles of the frames could suggest a way to expand the sensory vocabulary in order to actively propose and invite students to the sensory experience of food that may positively affect their meal perceptions.