Shelf-Life testing is designed to validate the length of time that a product will maintain the same “acceptable quality” or have “no change in sensory characteristics” over the entire life of a product. Shelf-Life testing may consider things such as storage conditions, age, ingredient substitutions, etc. Sample products may be aged naturally or under accelerated conditions.


The following example shows how RedJade can be used to conduct a Shelf-Life Test on a product stored under ideal conditions and a product that has gone through the typical distribution channel at 6 time points (1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months and 6 months).


Key decisions that must be made prior to starting your test include:

  • The number of products to be evaluated (two in this example)
  • The number of times to evaluate the products (six in this example)



See the following:




Sample Entry


The sample list for the test is a function of the number of products and the number of evaluation points. In this example we have have 2 products and 6 evaluation time points.


NOTE – Two additional evaluation samples have been created for each product, which can be used for additional evaluation time points, if needed.





Test Creation and Setup


The workflow for creating and setting up the test is similar to any other project:


SEE ALSO – Create an Onsite Test for further details.


  1. Select a Test Type.

  2. Location – Choose a Location, Check-in Type and Design Block Row Assignment.

  3. Participants – Indicate the Number of Participants.

  4. Schedule – Schedule a test date and time.

  5. Questionnaires – Create a Single Sample(s) Questionnaire and select ALL samples (16 samples in this example).



  6. Design Block – Proceed to the next section, Design Block.




Design Block


A single day balanced block design (Williams Squares) is created by default.


SEE ALSO –Work With the Design Block and Create a Design for further details.



To modify the block for the Shelf-Life Test:

  1. Click on +ADD A DAY.



    In this example we add 8 days (one day for each time point).



  2. Click on Day Assignment.



  3. Change the Day Assignment Mode to Manually assigned.



  4. The Design Area view changes.



  5. Drag each sample to its corresponding day or time point. In this example, 1 Week Products go in Day 1, 1 Month Products go in Day 2, 3 Months Products go in Day 3, etc.



  6. The BLOCK PREVIEW displays over the number of days specified (8 days in this example).




Additional Notes


  • This design allows data to be stat-tested across product and time period, per time period and within a product.
  • Designs cannot be edited once a participant has signed in and started testing. Creating more than enough time points is key!
  • The samples for the 2 additional time points are placed at the end of the design block, on Day 7 and Day 8 in the above example.
  • Samples can be renamed to reflect when they were actually evaluated. For example, if the Additional 1 sample is evaluated at 7 Months, it can be renamed accordingly:
    • From the Project Dashboard, click on [SHOW SAMPLES].
    • Click on a sample to edit the Report Name. 
    • See Add and Edit Samples for further details.