Senspire Flavor Studio is described on their website as a “suite of product development tools designed to help today’s food and beverage manufacturers bring better products to market faster with a variety of solutions for every stage of the product life cycle”. With Flavor Studio you can create new production ideations, conduct recipe formulations, assess costing, create nutritional labels, perform nutritional analysis, conduct consumer research surveys, manage projects and manage customer relationships- all in one place.
My first impression of Flavor Studio was that the overall aesthetics look professional and the functionality of the program was well thought out. One great feature is the ability to set up forms for taste testing, very easy and straightforward. An electronic form of the taste test is emailed out to the taster/user, they can taste and plug in their results and the data is sent back to the program and digitized into easy to read tables, charts and graphs. Flavor Studio also has done a great job with recipe inspiration via their patent-pending Inspire technology that predicts flavor combinations. The algorithm can determine what specific ingredients would create a strong or weak harmonious flavor profile based on what is added into the recipe pool of ingredients, which allows you to quickly assemble a collection of ingredients and spend more constructive time in the kitchen and/or laboratory. Lastly, Flavor Studio has excellent security measures in place to protect the users I.P. Flavor Studio uses encryption methods similar to that of a bank, employing 2-factor authentication with a code sent out via email or SMS. They also conduct third party audits to ensure no security vulnerabilities in their system.
While the website has great features, it is somewhat lacking in easy to access tutorials. New users are introduced to the program and all its features via virtual live training. Live training is essential because
the software is always being updated and 1:1 training ensures that the user gets the customized information they need based on how they plan to utilize the program. The user is left with a slide deck to reference as well as the option to email in questions that are responded to in 24-48 hours. This is helpful however sometimes in a crunch, users may want answers to program features right away and some online tutorials or ready help information would be useful in troubleshooting issues immediately without having to contact someone and wait for a response. An informational button for commonly used parts of the program like functions and tasks or a live chat function available during business hours would be helpful and similar to other websites that offer detailed services that may not have easy to remember function and software know-how. Users like to figure things out quickly on their own if they can.
These are only a few of the features that Flavor Studio has to offer. If you would like to experience it for yourself and learn more about the program, you can sign up for their 14 day trial or reach out to them directly via their website (https://www.senspirellc.com/). The cost of the program is $150 per user per month. There are a few other paying options to choose from, but that is the best option for a single person who is starting out.
This unbiased review was written by Jamie Rae Saranghilo Lee, a food enthusiast, chef and blogger (and soon to be a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN)). For more of her writings, recipes check out her website https://jamiesgoodeats.weebly.com/
