Sensory analysis — Methodology — Paired comparison test

2Scope / Description

Scope This International Standard describes a procedure for determining the sensory differences or similarities between samples of two categories of products with respect to the intensity of their perceived attributes. The test is sometimes also called a directional difference test or a 2-AFC (forced choice) test. In fact, the paired comparison test is a forced choice test performed between two samples. NOTE: The paired comparison test is one of the simplest classification tests, as it involves only two samples. This method is suitable for determining the presence or absence of a difference in a single sensory attribute or in multiple sensory attributes and is able to indicate the direction of the difference, but does not provide information on the degree of the difference. This method is only applicable when the products are relatively homogeneous.