‘Liking then CATA’ or ‘CATA then liking’? Impact of the hedonic question positioning on the wine sensory description and appreciation

The sequence of the questions asked in sensory testing is crucial and remains a topic of ongoing debate. This study examines the impact of question order in CATA (Check-All-That-Apply) analyses combined with hedonic evaluations, comparing two sequences: administering the liking question before the CATA question versus the reverse order. Conducted across four different times of the year, the study utilised four distinct panels and matrices of wines: two sets of red wines with various sweeteners, one set of rosé wines, and one set of white wines. The findings indicate that placing the CATA analysis before the liking question results in: (i) an enhanced product differentiation in correspondence analysis, (ii) a reduced number of panellists needed to achieve a strong dependence between products and attributes, and (iii) a greater number of significant differences in product liking scores as determined by ANOVA, compared to when the liking question precedes the CATA analysis.In summary, our findings show that positioning CATA before the liking question yields more detailed and discriminative results, at least with wines under our test conditions. This indicates a need for further research to understand the influence of question order, especially regarding the dependency between food products and their attributes.