FOOD OPEN PROFICIENCY SCHEME (SINGLE ROUND)

FOOD OPEN PROFICIENCY SCHEME (SINGLE ROUND)

The Food Open Proficiency Scheme is a structured, single-round sensory assessment designed to train, calibrate, and maintain the flavour-identification skills of food quality professionals. Using pharmaceutical-grade GMP Flavour Standards, it delivers accuracy and consistency beyond food-grade alternatives.

£350.00 GBP

Quantity:

We ship globally – shipping costs may apply depending on your region

Minimum Order: £275

WHAT IS A FOOD SENSORY PROFICIENCY SCHEME?

A food sensory proficiency scheme is a standardised testing programme where panellists identify reference flavours under controlled conditions. Results are logged, benchmarked, and analysed to reveal strengths and weaknesses, enabling targeted improvement of your sensory quality-control panel.

18 REFERENCE FLAVOURS COVERED IN THIS SCHEME

The Food Open Proficiency Program covers the core flavour compounds relevant to food quality control, encompassing both positive taste attributes and defect markers. Each flavour is a GMP-manufactured encapsulated standard.

– Sweet
– Sour
– Salty
– Bitter
– Astringent
– Alkaline
– Chlorophenol
– Metallic
– Musty
– Fermented
– Acetic
– Butyric
– Diacetyl
– H2S
– Indole
– Smoky
– Swampy
– Mulchy

FlavorActiV’s individual GMP Flavour Standards for these compounds are available separately and recommended for pre-scheme familiarisation.

WHY JOIN THE FOOD OPEN PROFICIENCY SCHEME?

Sensory calibration is essential for any food manufacturer or quality team seeking to maintain consistent product standards. This programme provides a measurable, evidence-based approach to panel development.

– Reduces the risk of undesirable product release reaching consumers
– Lowers the cost of specialist sensory training per panellist
– Identifies individual taster strengths and weaknesses for targeted coaching
– Supports staff retention and helps attract sensory talent
– Strengthens product consistency and brand reputation

HOW THE FOOD OPEN PROFICIENCY PROGRAMME WORKS

Step 1 — Taste the standards
Panellists evaluate each GMP Flavour Standard capsule in a food or beverage matrix, attempting to identify each compound by name and category.

Step 2 — Log results on the TVS platform
Results are entered into FlavorActiV’s proprietary TVS — a mobile-friendly platform accessible globally. The Single Round option provides limited TVS access; the Annual Programme grants full access.

Step 3 — Review performance data
The platform benchmarks each participant’s results, highlighting strengths and areas needing practice. This data informs targeted training decisions.

Step 4 — Track improvement over time
By repeating rounds through a single purchase or annual subscription, teams can measure genuine improvement in sensory acuity across the panel.

SINGLE ROUND VS ANNUAL PROGRAMME

Choose the format that best suits your team’s training schedule and budget.

Annual Round Single Program
No of Rounds 4 1
Cost per round £300 £350
TVS Access Full Limited
Certification Yes No
Proficiency Test Flavour Identification Flavour Identification
Subscription Annual subscription Pay as you go

Certification is awarded to participants who complete the full annual programme.

WHO IS THIS PROGRAMME FOR?

The Food Open Proficiency Scheme is designed for:

– Food manufacturers and processors seeking to validate sensory panel performance
– Quality assurance managers responsible for product release decisions
– Sensory scientists and flavourists are developing in-house panel capabilities
– Training managers looking for accredited, evidence-based proficiency tools
– Organisations new to structured sensory training who want a low-commitment entry point

START IMPROVING YOUR SENSORY ACCURACY TODAY

Join the Food Open Proficiency Scheme (Single Round) to enhance tasting precision, reduce quality risks, and build a stronger, more consistent product experience.

FlavorActiV GMP Flavour Standards

Only Pharmaceutical Quality GMP Flavour Standards provide sufficient quality for professional sensory panels to train and validate with.

We produce encapsulated GMP (Pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practice) Flavour Standards that are safe to both smell and drink. The compounds within our capsules impart the aroma, taste and mouthfeel of a specific defect or positive flavour into a beverage for the purposes of taster training, calibration and quality control.

Our individual flavour GMP Flavour Standards are sold by flavour, each flavour pack contains 5 capsules, each separately blister packaged. Our sensory kits contain a mixture of flavours, each separately blister packaged, read the product description for flavour details.

We ship globally, and have over 20 years of experience at it. Our GMP Pharmaceutical Flavour Standards are produced to the highest standards, and as such, their shelf-life is strong and their quality consistent.

FlavorActiV’s flavour centre is the world’s only pharmaceutically run facility dedicated to the production of flavour reference standards. The Flavour Centre is a state-of-the-art facility housed within the campus of world-renowned Quay Pharma near Liverpool in the U.K.

The Flavour Centre was designed by FlavorActiV from the ground up at the direct request of global customers as they looked to move away from inferior food grade ‘certified flavour standards’ to GMP Pharma, a standard that ensures safe, stable, traceable, consistent and long shelf-life products.

All FlavorActiV’s industry-leading encapsulated flavour standards are manufactured following GMP at our Flavour Centre. All aspects of manufacture are overseen by Quay Pharma who are audited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory agency (MHRA). We also welcome customer audits.

Only FlavorActiV GMP flavour standard capsules bear our mark of authenticity.

We brand each of our capsules so that our customers know they’re getting the Pharmaceutical GMP Quality that only FlavorActiV provide.

Industry leading packaging and shelf-life

FlavorActiV flavour standards are blister packaged, which extends shelf-life and protects capsules from potential contamination. The average shelf-life of FlavorActiV flavour standards is 18 months to 4 years, depending on the flavour compounds.

We will never ship in pots or plastic packaging, here’s why…

Blister packaging protects capsules from the environment until they are ready for use. Blister packaging greatly reduces the amount of headspace for possible flavour escape. As each capsule individually blister packaged, making use of one capsule still leaves all others protected. FlavorActiV Flavour Standard packaging is 100% recyclable, as opposed to polypropylene which is not widely recycled.

Pots are semi-porous, they allow molecules to pass through and flavour to be lost, their significant headspace also adds to substantial flavour escape as a gas, even when using just one capsule all those remaining in the pot are exposed.

Payment & Security

Your payment information is processed securely. We do not store credit card details nor have access to your credit card information.

Please select your country to see shipping prices

Related products