The WG was one of the firsts to be proposed during the foundation of E3S in Florence in 2011. Activity of WG started in 2012. The first task was a survey among the 30 members of the WG.
All the members were researchers and almost a third had experience with PDO official control for EU certification; as expected cheese, meat and wine form the major part of the expertise.
In 2013 two subgroups were created. Subgroup Methods and Accreditation dealt with sensory methods for official control for PDO accreditation. The subgroup Consumers has as main theme the understanding of consumers’ perceptions of PDOs.
The subgroup methods and accreditation was engaged in preparing guidelines for the sensory analysis of PDO. These guidelines were prepared in accordance with the need of the national Accreditation bodies, which were in charge of controlling the certification bodies of the PDOs (according to EU regulations). In order to cope well with the accreditation issues a contact was established between E3S and European Accreditation (EA) organisation to authorise a collaboration. A WG coordinator become stakeholder of EA and four accreditation experts participated in the final stage of preparation of the guidelines.
In 2015 the subgroup Methods and Accreditation has organized a survey of sensory analysis for official PDO control in Spain, France and Italy. Results of this survey were published in Food Control, v. 88, 2018, p. 159-168, “Current status and perspectives of the official sensory control methods in protected designation of origin food products and wines”.
In 2021, the subgroup publishes the “Guidelines for Sensory Analysis of Protected Designation of Origin Food Products and Wines”.
Four members of the subgroup Consumers organised a test with consumers of four different European countries evaluating traditional PDO cheeses and industrial cheeses. This work resulted in the paper “Effect of consumer origin on perceived sensory quality, liking and liking drivers: A cross-cultural study on European cheeses”, this paper was published in Food Quality and Preference, 2021, 104047 .
In 2015-6 the subgroup Consumers organised an online survey about consumer’s awareness, knowledge and image of PDO products. This survey involved about 1200 consumers in eight EU countries, some results were published in a poster of Eurosense 2016.
The WG has organized the following activities:
- Seminar Bern -12 September 2012,
- Mini symposium Vienna – 12 May 2014,
- Workshop Rome – 17 November 2015,
- Seminar Dijon – 14 September 2016,
- Symposium Reggio Emilia – 15 March 2017,
- Workshop Paris – 9 May 2017,
- Workshop Dublin – 8 May 2018,
- Workshop Milan – 27 May 2019.
Members of WG participated in the Conference Internationale Tourisme et Terroir in Delemont – 30 September 2017.
Moreover the WG has presented 6 posters in 3 Eurosense Conferences.