2023-12-27 00:07:04
They meet once a month for a special kind of aperitif: the water tasters from the Geneva Industrial Services (SIG) test samples of drinking water in order to detect possible taste or olfactory defects.
Around thirty GIS employees from different professions take part in these monthly sessions which complete the analyzes of the chemical and bacteriological quality of the water. Their mission: to detect flavors and possible bad tastes. “Only the human palate is capable of this,” explains Barbara Babel, responsible for training water tasters.
Water bath
Keystone-ATS was able to attend a meeting and test ten cups of Geneva water with around fifteen tasters. “The previous day, the samples are taken from different places in the canton,” explains Ms. Babel. “They are then all heated in a bain-marie to 23 degrees. It is at this temperature that we sense the flavors best.”
Tastings are done blind. Organoleptic evaluation sheets make it possible to qualify the possible flavors of the water (acidic, sweet, salty, bitter) or to detect possible defects (musty taste, chlorine, earth, perfume, fish, medicine, hydrocarbon, metallic , etc). The participants also note the intensity of the tastes identified.
Don’t look too far
“Often there is nothing; beginners look too far,” smiles Jacky Babel, GIS work coordinator, who has been doing the exercise since 2000, the year the project started.
Participants rinse their mouths between each tasting with commercial water. As with wine, bowls are provided to spit out the liquid. And be careful what you eat or drink before the test. “Certain tastes, like that of coffee, cigarettes or the smell of tangerine left on the hands can easily be misleading,” slips Mr. Babel between two sips.
If the guest journalist did not spot anything suspicious, except perhaps in her imagination, no strange taste was revealed that day in the ten test samples. In the rare cases where a problem or an odor is identified, the technicians in the sector concerned are asked to take samples again.
The brigade also carries out tests upon consumer complaints. “SIG receives around fifty per year. Our operating teams can then change certain settings, for example in the event of excess chlorine,” explains Hervé Guinand, Quality-Environment-Health-Safety director at SIG.
Doped waters
As tasting water is not “super crazy”, other exercises are proposed during the meetings, as continuing training. “We spike the water with different ‘defects’ to recognize. For example chlorine, metal, hydrocarbon or bitterness,” describes Barbara Babel. Additional challenge, the liquid is colored pink, yellow or blue, which can influence the senses.
Given the sometimes unsavory experience, a third, more fun test allows the meeting to end on a festive note. It’s about discovering a smell on a mouillette, a taste in an ice cream, a puree or chocolate.
From pepper to cardamom via Jerusalem artichoke, amber or hay, the exercise, not easy, calls on the memory. “Putting a name on certain flavors, such as vanilla and strawberry, is common. Others seem known, without us being able to recognize them,” laughs the manager who served that day artichoke puree and ginger ice cream.
Since the year 2000
The water tasters brigade was formed in the year 2000. More than 300 employees responded to the call launched by the SIG. Only the twenty finest noses had been recruited.
“Some have been participating since the beginning, others for less time. But most are loyal,” confides Ms. Babel. Some of them are even able to recognize the area from which the water was taken. In total, around 3,500 tests are carried out over the year.
The goal is to offer consumers the most neutral water possible, both in terms of taste, smell and appearance, notes Hervé Guinand, recalling that it is the most controlled foodstuff in the world. Company.
SIG has also trained around a hundred “in-house” water tasters who report once a month on the internet on the taste and olfactory quality of what comes out of their tap.
All these efforts are bearing fruit: surveys reveal that the people of Geneva are very satisfied with their Château-la-Pompe, rejoices Hervé Guinand.
This article was automatically published. Source: ats
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