Policies

Thanks for signing up to participate in our research and consumer tests! We’re excited to hear your opinions.

We use our database to screen panelists for recruited consumer tests. To qualify for these tests, fill out the short surveys we email you.

By joining our database, you agree to the following policies:

  1. You must 18 years of age or older to be a member of our database.

    We do run kids’ taste tests, but we recruit for these tests by sending screeners to parents. If you did not specify you have kids on your application form, you will not receive these screeners.

  2. Recruitment criteria change for every test.

    These requirements ensure we are recruiting people who represent real consumers of the products we test. Please answer all screening questions honestly. There is no special combination of answers that will qualify you for every test.

  3. You may have only one panelist account with the SSC.

    If we find out you have registered with multiple accounts and are taking screeners multiple times, we will delete all alternate accounts and you will be prevented from registering for taste tests for 30 days.

  4. You will need to bring a photo ID to every taste test.

    ID’s can include driver’s licenses, NC State IDs, workplace IDs, etc.

  5. Be honest.

    We care about your opinions! Your honesty is the cornerstone of the validity of our research.

  6. We cannot accommodate participants with food allergies because we cannot guarantee an allergen-free space.

    Our lab is located within Schaub Hall at NC State. We do not have control over the environment in the building beyond our lab, so unfortunately we cannot control for allergens in our location. In addition, we test a wide variety of food products and may run multiple tests simultaneously. We apologize for the inconvenience. If you have food allergies or intolerances, we would love for you to participate in our online surveys.

Thanks for helping us out by following these policies! In return, we promise to:

  1. Protect your data. All your data is held on a secure, encrypted server.
  2. Respect your privacy. We never give your name or contact info to a third party. If you don’t participate in a taste test, your data will not be used. No reports generated from consumer test data will ever include identifying information (unless specifically disclosed beforehand in a consent form).
  3. Follow all regulations and best practices as described by the Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research (IRB).
  4. Do whatever we can to make participating in our research a fun and rewarding experience. If you have any issues or questions, please email us at sensory_service@ncsu.edu.