Arabic version of the Identification Smell Test

The ODOFIN Sniffin’ Sticks blue identification test from Burghart is a commonly used smell test. The test contains 16 common odors, but these odors are not easily recognized by all users. Researchers from Cairo University (Egypt), TU Dresden (Germany), and the University of Wroclaw are exploring the possibilities of adapting the Sniffin’ Sticks identification smell test to the Arab population. You can read the article via this link.

Why cultural adaptation matters

Olfactory perception isn’t merely biological—it’s shaped by culture, language, and familiarity. For instance, in the Arabic version, researchers swapped pineapple for mango. This is because mango is a more commonly eaten type of fruit in Arab culture — leading to better recognition among participants. This highlights a critical principle: to get accurate results, smell tests need to fit the cultural context in which they’re used.

Designing a culturally fitting Arabic identification smell test

Seeking to bridge this gap, researchers conducted a prospective controlled study in Egypt, involving 382 participants aged 8 to 74, including 323 healthy individuals and 59 patients. The goal? To align the SST more closely with scents and descriptors that Arabic speakers naturally recognize.

Key findings:

• Four of the original SST’s odor descriptors were recognized by fewer than 75% of participants—a threshold indicating inadequate familiarity.
• These poorly recognized descriptors were replaced with more familiar terms, while still maintaining the original scents used for testing. Replaced odors were: ‘‘leather’’ (replaced with ‘‘wall paint’’), ‘‘cloves’’ (replaced with ‘‘pepper’’) and ‘‘pineapple’’ (replaced with ‘‘mango’’). Additionally, the descriptor ‘‘turpentine’’ was changed to ‘‘paint thinner’
• The revised version exhibited high test–retest reliability, meaning candidate scores were consistent across repeated administrations.

Odors updated test

In the new, modified version of the identification test answer sheet in Egypt— the researchers replaced unfamiliar descriptors (both the names of target odors and distractors) included in SST answer sheet with highly recognizable names of odors. 

The complete list of the updated test are: orange, leather wall paint, cinnamon, peppermint, banana, lemon, liquorice, turpentine paint thinner, garlic, coffee, apple, clove pepper, pineapple mango, rose, anise, fish

This means that the test is the same as the original; the only difference are the names on the multiple choice cards.

Do you want to order the identification test? You can do so through the following link. Please note that the test will only include the original answering cards (English/ German) from the blue identification test and not the adapted cards.

ODOFIN Sniffin’ Sticks, Identification Test 16, blue

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