Application of fuzzy preference modelling to the fusion of sensory profile data

We propose a new analysis method to deal with sensory profile data. Such data are composed of scores attributed by human experts (or judges) in order to describe a set of products according to a given sensory descriptor. All assessments are repeated, usually three times. The first step consists in extracting and encoding the relevant information of each replicate into a fuzzy weak dominance relation. Then an aggregation procedure over the replicates allows synthesis of the perception of each judge into a new fuzzy relation. In a similar way, a consensual relation is finally obtained by fusing the relations of the judges. The proposed analysis tools are based on a particular objective of the fuzzy preference modelling: the decomposition of a fuzzy weak preference relation into a fuzzy preference structure. An example of application illustrates the interest of the method.