Products such as toothpastes and cough syrups will be tested prior to market in a new Consumer Sensory Lab launched in west London by GSK Consumer Healthcare. The new facility, which operates alongside GSK Consumer Healthcare’s Shopper Science Lab, uses state of the art eye-tracking devices, as well as facial and skin biometric monitoring systems to observe people’s assessment of a product’s properties, such as taste, smell and texture.

Two highly-trained 12-person consumer panels, selected specifi cally for their high levels of sensory perception, sit in individual enclosed booths to give detailed feedback on products before discussing their findings as a group, to ensure that a product’s characteristics meet consumers’ needs.

Sally Loughlin, senior director, consumer and sensory innovation at GSK Consumer Healthcare, said: “We are delighted to launch our Consumer Sensory Lab which will help us understand the needs of consumers both in the UK and Europe more widely in a way that simply wasn’t possible before when using household products.”

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