The Application of a Sensory QC & QA program in a Global

FMCG company

8 October 2013

SAAFoST Congress

The Bitter Sweet Journey to the implementation of a Global Sensory Program in the SABMiller Group

Gary Steyn – Divisional Taste and Laboratory Manager

Dr Frieda M Dehrmann Consumer Science &Sensory Manager

SAB Ltd, 65 Park Lane, Sandown, Johannesburg

You can't have a Real Country unless you

have a BEER and an airline - it helps if

you have some kind of a football team,

or some nuclear weapons, but at the

very least you need a BEER. • Frank Zappa

• The SABMiller Journey

• Why Sensory evaluation as a QA/QC

Tool?

• What are the requirements for an

effective system

– Identification of flavours and levels

– Training and Validation

– Systems and process

• Role out around the Globe

• What has this enabled?

Contents

The SABMiller Journey

Significant businesses with production operations Selling operations and major export markets Associates

North America

Latin America

Europe

Africa

South Africa

Asia Pacific

6 Continents

200 Beer brands

75 Countries

>90 Breweries

• Pre 2005, we had more than 5 different taste system assessments

• Uncertainty over brand character and quality………

• Mr Mackay immediately knew what was needed…..

The SABMiller Journey

What was needed: • A brand centric quality measurement system,

• Uniform across the operations

• Comparable

• Executable

• Reportable

And so, the Global Taste system was born,

as the brain child of Prof Barry Axcell.

Why Sensory Evaluation?

For QC

• Its quick

• TTDTTC shortened (Shigeo-Shingo)

• If designed correctly – it should form the basis

of continuous improvement projects

• Its cost effective

For QA

• Consumer facing!!! (Its what the consumer

tastes that’s important) – but its technically

validated

• Can be applied anywhere

What are the requirements for an effective system?

For an effective Sensory System, we require:

Effective QA and

QC Sensory system

Knowledge of applicable

flavours/textures/tastes

• Capable tasters

(through training and

validation) using a

single descriptive

system

• Taster management

Systems and

processes for

sensory

evaluation

Identification of Flavour/Tastes/Textures

• Knowledge of product – what do you want the product to

look/taste/smell/feel/sound like

• Knowledge of what you don’t want the product to

look/taste/smell/feel/sound like

• Knowledge of what can taint or contaminate the product

• Knowledge of how the product ages/stales

• Knowledge of flavour thresholds for each of these

• Use commonly believed sensory descriptors

• Use experienced people/assessors

• Use consumers

• Use production knowledge to identify

contaminants and taints

Uniform Terminology!!

Identification of Flavour/Tastes/Textures

From these terms:

• Create a “Gold standard”/Flavour profile/Texture profile

• Design into

– Core

– Brand specific

– Off flavours/taints/contaminants

Off flavours

Brand

Core

Most Important:

Understanding the origins of the

flavours/odours/textures in the process

so as to ensure all undesirable flavours

or levels can be controlled to the

perfect product!!

Taster Training and Validation Taster training program development:

• Identify where tasters will be used to determine taster competency levels

(Basic, Advanced, NPD etc)

• Associate flavours, textures and flavour levels (concentrations) with each

of the taster competencies

• Design training program for each competency level

• Design maintenance program for each competency level (weekly or

monthly education)

• Design monitoring and progression program for each competency level

Tenets:

• 3 x exposures provide a sensory memory

• Typical threshold for training between 1 and 3

• Natural scaling ability on 10 point scale

• Recognition , difference, rank rating tests to

assess competency

• Time and exposure drive improved competency

or

+ or

+

7.1. BASIC TASTER TRAINING

7.2 ADVANCED TASTER TRAINING

1. Candidate expresses interest in Tasting

2. Taste questionnaire completed, assessed and filed

3. Basic Taste education Training SAB.B.TM.P07 (12 flavours)

4a. Intervention Training – 5 sessions back to back

4b.Weekly training

5.BASIC TASTER STATUS ACHIEVED:

80% pass rate on 12 flavours

Annual Recertification required

Can participate in

Process tasting

Warehouse release

Flavour stability

Other Go/No Go

6. Basic Taster expresses interest in becoming Advanced

7a. Advanced Taste Education Training SAB.B.TM.P8 A,B,C

7b. Attendance at Regional Tasting for 90 hour or approx 4 months

8a. Intensive Taster Training SAB.B.TM.P08D

8b. Weekly training Advanced + Test

Global Scaling

Global Flavours scaling

Monthly scaling exercises

Involvement of Central Taste Manager to jointly assess competence

9. ADVANCED TASTER STATUS ACHIEVED

70% pass rate on selected 10 flavours of 28

Global Brands

Global Flavour scaling

Annual Recertification required Can participate in All taste sessions

Basic Taster Maintenance Program

Advanced Taster Maintenance Program

10. Advanced Taster expresses interest in becoming FAB Taster

11a. FAB Taste Education SAB.B.TM.P08 C

11b. Attendance at Regional FAB Tasting for 90 hour or approx 4 months.

Participation in FAB TVS

12.

Monthly training and annual FAB brand exposure.

Involvement of Central Taste manager, and FAB Consultant to jointly assess competence

Advanced Taster Maintenance Program, including FAB flavour training

To develop an Advanced taster

in SABMiller language is around

9 – 18 months!

Don’t forget to

capture as formal

training in HR

Records!!

Taster Training and Validation Taster training validation program:

• Where possible, use a central or independent validation

process, administered independently

• This should assess competency of assessors against the

required level and standards

• Information is proprietary, and should be stored/archived as for

any analytical instruments

• Defensible

• Assessors can personally benchmark against high

standards

• Can be used to create excitement and allow

recognition of performance

• Can be used to identify training needs

Taster Health – annual

assessments as part of the

work place monitoring

Systems and Process

• Design tasting system around QC and QA requirements

• QC: Raw materials, process tasting, warehouse release

• QA: Packaged product

– Defined frequencies

- Flavour stability

- Trade samples

• Where possible, capture system into LIMS!!

Global Implementation! Some of the challenges in a Global organisation

• Every location had there own system

• Every location had their own language and in fact different descriptors for

the same flavour/texture/odour

• Territorial (!)

• Different Capabilities

• Different Technical infrastructure

Some of the key drivers of success

• Owned at the highest level

• Global working group with face 2 face time

• Clear deliverables and time lines, with a catchy project Name

• Headed by a neutral person who had no vested interest in any of

the systems

• Identification of KPI’s tracked at the highest level to ascertain

progress

• Reward and recognition as progress was made

• Lagging countries – focussed attention

Global Implementation!

So, what did the Global Taste System entail?

• A standard set of terminology of beer flavours

(144 flavours, around 45 for training)

• A standard method for assessing packaged

product against Flavour profiles

• Each brand has its own unique flavour profile

• A standardised set of taster competencies

• An external validation system

• A global software application that enables

anywhere real time assessment of samples,

and access to all hierarchies of results

Standard Terminology Class term First Tier Second Tier Comments, synonyms, definitions Reference standard

Class 1 Aromatic, Fragrant, Fruity, Floral

0110 Alcoholic 0111 Spicy 0112 Vinous 0120 Solvent-like 0121 Plastics 0122 Can-liner 0123 Acetone 0130 Estery 0131 Isoamyl acetate 0132 Ethyl hexanoate 0133 Ethyl acetate NOT yet assigned Ethyl butyrate 0140 Fruity 0141 Citrus 0142 Apple 0143 Banana 1044 Blackcurrant 0145 Melony 0146 Pear 0147 Raspberry 0148 Strawberry 0150 Acetaldehyde 0160 Floral 0161 2-Phenylethanol 0162 Geraniol 0163 Perfumy 0170 Hoppy 0171 Kettle-hop 0172 Dry-hop 0173 Hop oil

The general effect of ethanol and higher alcohols. Allspice, nutmeg, peppery, eugenol. See also 1003 Vanilla. Bouquet, fusely, wine-like. Like chemical solvents Plasticizers Lacquer-like Like aliphatic esters. Banana, peardrop. Apple-like with note of aniseed. See also 0142 Apple. Light fruity, solvent-like. See also 0120 Solvent-like. Tropical fruits, mango, tinned pineapple Of specific fruits or mixtures of fruits. Citral, grapefuit, lemony, orange-rind. Blackcurrant fruit. For blackcurrant leaves use 0810 Catty. Green apples, raw appleskin, bruised apples. Like flowers, fragrant Rose-like Rose-like, different from 0161. Taster should compare the pure chemicals. Scented Fresh hop aroma. Use with other terms to decribe stale hop aroma. Does not include hop bitterness (see 1200 Bitter) Flavour imparted by aroma hops boiled in the kettle Flavour imparted by dry hops added in tank or cask. Flavour imparted by addition of distilled hop oil.

Eugenol (approx 40 µg/l) Styrene (approx 20 µg/l) Isoamyl acetate (1.4 mg/l) Ethyl hexanoate (0.2 mg/l) Ethyl acetate Ethyl butyrate (0.4 mg/l) Acetaldehyde (5 – 15 mg/l) (2-Phenylethanol) Geraniol (18 µg/l – 350 ug/l – population dependant) Ketones and terpens from oil of hops (approx 0.04 mg/l) Oil of Target hops (approx 0.16 mg/l)

An externally validated taste competency set

An externally validated taste competency set

Global Software

• Hierarchical permissions and data access

• Time zone differences

• Limited accessibility – off line data capture

• REPORTS

• System performance

• Brand and Brewery performance

• Franchise performance

• Taster performance

• Audit reports

• Subscriptions

Global Software

Sample Identifier: 20120126:886-02W:08

Brand: Redds Original

Tasting Location: South Africa

Tasting Date: 25 Jan 2012

•

•

SABMiller Global Taste System

Executive Summary Report

Brewery: New lands

Packaging Date: 21 Dec 2011

Package Type: 660 ml Returnable Bottle

Age At Tasting: 35 days

1. Overall Sample Score = 9.5 (95% compliance to Brand Profile).

2. 12 Month Trend

3. Core & Brand Characteristics

5% Lost.

4. Points Lost - Off Flavour

1% Lost.

• Level of information and presentation

for user

• Authority based

What this has enabled! 1. Comparisons on the same metric around our 80 breweries

on 6 continents with more than 1000 assessors!

2. Opportunity for Brewers to drive continuous improvement

3. Opportunity to monitor progress by brand, by brewery, by

country, by Hub!

4. Line of site for all report viewers for all info

5. Subscribed reports in your mail box!

6. Ability to understand taster competencies around the globe

What will this enable!

Great and CONSISTENT tasting beer – with

every bottle!

Summary

• Sensory evaluation is a great QC

and QA tool

• Identification of the relevant sensory

attributes

• Training and validation against these

• Create the test methodology and the

processes

• Manage and enjoy the ultimate

consumer facing metric!

Thank you and Cheers!

• Questions?