ISO 8586:2012, “Sensory analysis – General guidelines for the selection, training and monitoring of selected assessors and expert sensory assessors,” has just been released and is now available from Document Center Inc. in both pdf and paper format. The new standard specifies criteria for the selection and procedures for the training and monitoring of selected assessors and expert sensory assessors. It supplements the information given in ISO 6658, “Sensory analysis — Methodology — General guidance.”
These standards focus on the examination of foods, as assessed by a panel that may be comprised of as many as three types of participants. They include sensory assessors (who can be just about anyone), selected assessors (a person with the ability to perform the test), and expert assessors (folks who have proven to be able to make consistent and repeatable judgements).
ISO 8586 provides a detailed description of how to recruit for such a panel, how to train various assessors, how to develop panels for the various methods of testing, and how to monitor the assessors over time to confirm the “calibration” of the human “test instrument.”
With the release of this document, both the ISO 8586-1, “Sensory analysis — General guidance for the selection, training and monitoring of assessors — Part 1: Selected assessors,” and ISO 8586-2, “Sensory analysis — General guidance for the selection, training and monitoring of assessors — Part 2: Experts,” have been withdrawn (superseded).
All ISO standards are available from Document Center Inc. at our website, www.document-center.com. Please note: territorial restrictions apply due to the structure of ISO itself. Please feel free to contact us by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com) should you have any questions about this or any other ISO document.