This manual is not a “standard” to which everyone will be expected to adhere for every research study. It is, as the title suggests, “Research Guidelines.” The researcher must decide the most appropriate methods to use to answer the question at hand. The methods and approaches described herein, however, are accepted and recommended as the most appropriate for most circumstances. These also are not consumer cookery guidelines, but research guidelines. Thus, recommended research methods may not always produce the highest level of consumer acceptance. The methods and approaches recommended in these Guidelines, however, are designed to control unwanted variability, to determine the most accurate answer to the questions being addressed with the most relevant methods possible, and, when feasible, to allow for valid comparative interpretation of published research.