Chinese food tasters are going viral by sharing videos that reveal a job much tougher than its dreamy image, even if the task comes with a “weight-gain subsidy”.
The unusual workers are hired by snack brands, food factories and supermarkets. They earn an average of about 10,000 yuan (US$1,400) a month for their taste-testing duties.
Their formal title is “sensory evaluation engineer”.
Their job is to detect the tiniest shifts in flavour, from milk-fat concentration to how long the aftertaste lingers and to judge whether a product’s appearance and texture stay consistent.
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Mainland reports say ice cream tasters can down 40 to 50 items a day in summer, while braised-food tasters go through dozens of meat boxes in climate-controlled rooms.
One taster, Mei Wan from a snack company, told Jimu News she can taste more than 2.5kg of samples in a single morning, racking up more than 8,400 KJ, equivalent to an entire day’s worth of calories for an adult.
After eating, tasters must write detailed reports that can run thousands of characters and their feedback can determine whether a product ever makes it onto shop shelves.