A tasting that fails to detect a difference does not establish equivalence unless its design, tolerance and power address equivalence.
Difference tests remain useful for their intended question; insufficient power can conceal real differences.
Use a declared acceptable difference, reference and suitable design. Solo repeats can support personal consistency, not independent-panel equivalence.
Researcher synthesis grounded in Hill & Jack (2023), chapter11. Linked Literature Note provides exact chapter evidence. Not a tested consumer blend result.
Atomic idea
A tasting that fails to detect a difference does not establish equivalence unless its design, tolerance and power address equivalence.
Reasoning
Use a declared acceptable difference, reference and suitable design. Solo repeats can support personal consistency, not independent-panel equivalence.
Difference tests remain useful for their intended question; insufficient power can conceal real differences.
Provenance
Evidence:
Connections
Uses existing approved retrieval tags. This is a research synthesis, not an experimentally established recipe or claim of reproducing a premium bottle.
Maturity checklist
Maturity remains Developing pending broader synthesis and any applicable trial evidence.
Sensory Evaluation Techniques — Critical Extension
Meilgaard, Civille and Carr (2016), pp. 79–89, support defining the alternative, error risks and relevant difference in advance. The mouthwash example on pp. 567–571 illustrates the danger of calling a non-significant outcome equivalence. Proposed Academy use: teach non-detection separately from a suitably powered equivalence or similarity design.