Scope
1.1 This guide covers reasonable practices for designing and implementing sensory tests, which validate claims pertaining only to the sensory characteristics of a product. A claim is a statement about a product, which highlights its advantages, sensory attributes or differences compared to itself or other products to enhance its marketability. Attribute, performance, and hedonic claims, both comparative and noncomparative, are covered. This guide includes broad principles covering selecting and recruiting representative consumer samples, selecting and preparing products, constructing product rating forms, test execution, and statistical handling of data. This guide was developed by expert practitioners in the field. The intent this guide is to disseminate good testing practices. Validation of claims should be made more manageable if the essence of this guide is followed.
