British Baker met Lydia Baines, marketing manager for Belgian ingredients manufacturer Puratos, who told us about the Puratos Sensobus.

The Sensobus is designed to help the company understand consumer preferences – it is essentially a fully equipped sensory analysis lab on wheels. On the day we visited, the bus was parked up in Brighton, and was looking specifically at the glaze on vanilla crowns on behalf of a client.

The Sensobus can welcome up to 300 consumers a day – their input is then analysed by the company’s researchers, who use the results to help clients choose the most suitable products or solutions.

In a bustling, sunny Brighton, Baines took a moment to tell us a little more about what was going on.