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The vacancy of ‘descriptive sensory panellist’, whose responsibilities include tasting up to 24 cheese samples and 12 different pizzas per week, among other foods, is still open.
It is a seemingly idyllic position in which the researcher will be responsible for conducting three tasting sessions per week, lasting about three hours, at a rate of $15 per hour. They will “describe a range of food products in terms of appearance, texture, aroma and taste” in order to score each sample accurately based on metrics they are taught in a full ‘product taster’ training.
“There are specialised scales and terminology that we use that people probably haven’t been exposed to before, but you learn all that as you go along,” the centre tells the Wisconsin State Journal.
Beyond analysing and grading these products, the work includes participating in discussions on the samples tasted, as well as attending taster training, performance control studies and each product evaluation session.
The Wisconsin State Journal reported that there were currently about 135 applicants for the five open sensory panelist positions, from which they will continue to accept resumes until 21 June.