Empirical tests are quite useful in assessing the attrition of agglomerated food powders. A common attrition test for pharmaceutical substances is the Friabilator test. In this test the particulate material is rotated in a cylindrical drum and attrition measured by separating fines after a given time using a sieve of appropriate mesh size. A simple vibration test, that can be performed on any laboratory sieving machine, is presented and results are compared with those of the Friabilator test. Products used were commercial cocoa beverage drinks. It was shown that attrition depends on particle size and granular strength of the original agglomerates, rather than on composition of the food powder. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.