Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: The target audience for this Special Section comprises parties related to the food and feed sectors, e.g., field samplers, academic and industrial scientists, laboratory personnel, companies, organizations, regulatory bodies, and agencies who are responsible for sampling, as well as project leaders, project managers, quality managers, supervisors, and directors. All these entities face heterogeneous materials, and the characteristics of heterogeneous materials needs to be competently understood by all of them. Before delivering analytical results for decision-making, one form or other of primary sampling is always necessary, which must counteract the effects of the sampling target heterogeneity. Up to five types of sampling error may arise as a specific sampling process interacts with a heterogeneous material; two sampling errors arise because of the heterogeneity of the sampling target, and three additional sampling errors are produced by the sampling process itself-if not properly understood, reduced, and/or eliminated, which is the role of Theory of Sampling. This paper discusses the phenomenon and concepts involved in understanding, describing, and managing the adverse effects of heterogeneity in sampling.
Source: Journal of AOAC International
Author: Kim H Esbensen
Institution: Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
Language: English
Subfield: Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2322491330