sensory-scientist/references/skills.md

Competences — sensory scientist

Source: ESCO v1.2.1 occupation-skill relations (http://data.europa.eu/esco/occupation/8606c0fd-c7cb-404d-887f-3a30ef7a81b4).

Essential

• advise on fragrances (skill/competence)
• allergology (knowledge)
• analyse characteristics of food products at reception (skill/competence)
• analytical chemistry (knowledge)
• chemistry (knowledge)
• combination of flavours (knowledge)
• create beverage recipes with botanicals (skill/competence)
• food flavourings (knowledge)
• market research (knowledge)
• microbiology-bacteriology (knowledge)
• molecular biology (knowledge)
• olfaction (knowledge)
• perform sensory evaluation of food products (skill/competence)
• prepare raw materials (skill/competence)
• quantitative sensory testing (knowledge)
• research fragrances (skill/competence)
• research new food ingredients (skill/competence)
• statistical analysis system software (knowledge)
• statistics (knowledge)
• toxicology (knowledge)

Optional

• add scent (skill/competence)
• advise food industry (skill/competence)
• allergies (knowledge)
• analyse consumer buying trends (skill/competence)
• analyse samples of food and beverages (skill/competence)
• assess quality characteristics of food products (skill/competence)
• check quality of raw materials (skill/competence)
• create fragrances formulae (skill/competence)
• describe flavour of different wines (skill/competence)
• describe the flavour of different beers (skill/competence)
• develop new food products (skill/competence)
• document analysis results (skill/competence)
• food allergies (knowledge)
• food legislation (knowledge)
• food science (knowledge)
• participate in the development of new food products (skill/competence)
• perform physico-chemical analysis to food materials (skill/competence)
• perfume raw materials (knowledge)
• report analysis results (skill/competence)
• test fragrances against customer satisfaction (skill/competence)
• troubleshoot cosmetics formula issues (skill/competence)

Market evidence (job-ad analysis, 47 ads, as of 2026-07-19)

Share of analyzed job ads mentioning the item (threshold ≥ 20 %). Source: JSearch/Adzuna APIs.

Hard skills

• data analysis — 55 %
• consumer research — 38 %
• statistical analysis — 36 %
• sensory evaluation — 34 %
• project management — 23 %

Methods

• discrimination testing — 19 %