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Applied Sensory Research for Wine

Quantitative Descriptive Analysis (QDA) is an advanced food and beverage sensory evaluation method that supports applied research, business and marketing decisions. Defined product characteristics are quantified by a trained sensory panel. Sensory data is statistically analyzed to generate precise sensory profiles and identify differences between consumer products.

Wine Sensory Profiling

Since 2014, Sirocco has offered professional Wine Sensory Profiling services for clients interested in applied research. Sirocco has worked with local wineries and universities. All wine tastings take place in the B.C. Wine Information Society Sensory Centre located on the Okanagan College campus in Penticton.  Sensory Profiling is a scientific method that supplements the quality assessments of the winemaker and sommelier. Wines are tasted blind by a trained panel under controlled conditions.

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What Clients Are Saying

Karine is known in the food industry as an expert in Food Safety: conducting food safety related trainings, assisting companies develop and implement their food safety programs, and a wine connoisseur.  I had the privilege to attend several of her trainings, which are practical and easy to understand.  Our company needed assistance on SQF gap assessment and she provided valuable advice and information for us to ace our SQF Certification.  I recommend her to companies which are building their programs and are committed to start right and want to maintain an excellent Food Safety System.
"Karine taught the PCQI course clearly, and at a good pace that didn't feel too fast. She asked insightful questions that sparked discussions and helped broaden the expertise of those involved in the class, I would recommend it to others."
"We have been using the expertise of Karine in the implementation of the SQF program and have always been completely satisfied with her help and guidance. She did an excellent job by directing us to the right resources and to obtain an excellent score in the SQF audit. We have also used the SQF templates available with Sirocco Food Safety Consulting to write our SOPs to comply with the SQF codes. The Spanish templates were very useful in creating SOPs in Spanish to cater most of our employees. I’m happy to recommend the services of Sirocco Food Safety Consulting for your SQF certification needs."
I have been very pleased and satisfied with the SQF Bundle edition 9 developed by Karine Lawrence from Sirocco Food + Wine Consulting. All procedures (templates) are professionally and beautifully written, saved us a tremendous amount of time, and enabled us to achieve our goal of gaining an excellent score in the audit. Karine is very knowledgeable, and it has been a pleasure working with her. I highly recommend the SQF Bundle and her consulting services.

Karine is such a wonderful teacher. As a student for the PCQI hybrid course I learned a lot from the virtual course but was left with a lot of questions. I was looking forward to the instructor-led course to get some more practice and answers to my questions. Karine was clear and thorough in her explanations. Her consulting business experience gave her a plethora of examples to draw from. I was impressed by her ability to address my questions and give me resources to continue my study. She is very well versed in the regulations required and is up to date on any changes or new publications that may influence your business. She was very accommodating to my needs. I highly recommend taking a class from Karine. She is an expert in her field. I left the class feeling confident in my ability to act as a PCQI and make a positive impact on my company.

My company needed to create a more robust Preventative Control Plan than what we had, and I am so thankful to have found Sirocco Food + Wine Consulting. Their templates were just what I needed, and Karine and Sean were readily available to answer my questions and provide guidance when necessary. Karine and her team are highly competent, knowledgeable, friendly, and prompt to respond with help. I can't recommend them enough!

We successfully passed our initial HACCP certification audit, without a single finding!  While this seemed quite surprising, I then realized that this was due to the thorough gap assessment provided by Sean Xia at Sirocco Consulting, along with additional documentation support. Sean inspected our facility and dug through all of our systems and records in such detail as to be able to expose all of our issues.  We were then provided with our initial HACCP plan and a set of GMP documentation that we were able to edit and integrate with our existing documentation.  But these documents were not just provided to us, they were each individually reviewed in a handover that provided further insights.  And Sean also made himself available for future questions - such amazing support! As we proceeded to work through implementation of the new GMP's and to address all items in the gap assessment, I felt quite confident - albeit a bit trepidatious - about the pending audit.  However, on the audit date, things went so much more smoothly than I ever could have imagined. Thank you, Sirocco!
As a Faculty Instructor in the area of Food Technology, a key course taught in the BCIT programme, is sensory evaluation. Most of it is a hands-on approach with physically applying and calculating the correct statistics associated with the testing. When Karine reached out to me with the opportunity to try out a sensory software programme from Tastelweb©, it enabled the students to look at tests such as QDA  and Pivot Profiling Tests in more detail. Its ease of use, ability to conduct on a smartphone and automatic calculation of statistical analysis was a winner with the students!  This programme also created very good impactful visuals for easy interpretation even for the non-scientist. Karine was also available to provide backup support for set up and interpretation of the results. This programme provides the flexibility of usage without a contract, especially to a smaller business where cost is a big factor. In addition, exposure to software programmes like Tastelweb© helps build a good portfolio for students graduating in a competitive industry.
We contacted Sirocco Consulting after scoring lower than desired on an SQF 8.0 audit. Karine visited our plant and did a gap assessment. We found her efficient and helpful and used her guidance to get our CARs addressed. Subsequently, we hired Karine to return and train our key personnel on the FSPCA course. Again, we appreciate her knowledge and ability to teach efficiently. I would recommend Sirocco to anyone needing help building their food safety program.
We just had a gap assessment conducted in preparation for our SQF audit. We developed our written program with the help of Sirocco Food and Wine Consulting. These templates are terrific and easy to implement. The SQF consultant who performed the document review was very impressed with the quality of the procedures and record templates. Knowing that our written documents meet the standard, we feel that we are in a good position to pass our SQF audit and obtain our certification.
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Interested to learn more? We use Tastelweb© software for our research projects. Drop us a line!