2. Getting involved
3. Standards Committees
4. NAL

DIN Standards Committee Food and Agricultural Products

Overview

The International Standard ISO 11136 describes approaches for measuring, within a controlled area, the degree to which consumers like or relatively like products. The tests are conducted in a controlled environment, which means that preparation and presentation, as well as the conditions for consuming the products and the conditions for questioning consumers, are to be defined in such a way as to ensure independent answers. This includes tests based on collecting consumers' responses to questions, generally on paper or via a keyboard or a touch screen. Tests of a behavioural nature (such as recording quantities consumed ad libitum by the consumers) do not fall within the scope of this International Standard. The hedonic tests dealt with in this International Standard, can be used as a contribution to the following: - comparing a product with competitor products; - optimizing a product so that it obtains a high hedonic rating or is liked by a large number of consumers; - helping to define a range of products to correspond to a particular consumer target population; - helping to define a best-before date; - assessing the impact of a product formulation change on the pleasure given by the product; - studying the impact of sensory characteristics of a product on degree to which it is liked, independently of the product's extrinsic characteristics, such as brand, price, or advertising; - studying the effect of a commercial or presentation variable, such as packaging. The methods are effective for determining - whether or not, a perceptible preference exists (difference in degree of liking), or - whether or not, no perceptible preference (paired similarity test) exists. The informative Annexes A to H describe possible statistical evaluation procedures and explain them using examples. Annex A provides an example of a recruitment questionnaire. In addition to the special definitions of terms, reference is made to the sensory analysis standard, ISO 5492. This document contains, without change, International Standard ISO 11136:2014, prepared by ISO/TC 34 "Food products" (Secretariat: AFNOR (France)), Subcommittee SC 12 "Sensory analysis" (secretariat: IRAM (Argentina)). Based on the decision of CEN/SS C01 "Food products", ISO 11136:2014 has been submitted for adoption as a European standard. The national mirroring is carried out for CEN/SS C01 "Food products" (secretariat: CCMC) by Working Committee NA 057-01-01 AA "Sensory analysis" of DIN Standards Committee Food and Agricultural Products (NAL).

Document: references other documents

Responsible national committee

NA 057-08-01 AA - Sensory analysis  

Responsible european committee

CEN/BT - BT Technical Board  

Responsible international committee

ISO/TC 34/SC 12 - Sensory analysis