Representative Sample

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-023922",
  "term": "Representative Sample",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definition": "1. A portion of material or water that is as nearly identical in content and consistency as possible to that in the larger body of material or water being sampled.\n\n2. A sample that has approximately the same distribution of characteristics as the population from which it was drawn.\n\n3. Sample of a universe or whole (e.g., waste pile, lagoon, ground water) which can be expected to exhibit the average properties of the universe or whole.\n\n4. Portion of material or water that is as nearly identical in content and consistency as possible to that in the larger body of material or water being sampled. [EPA 2005b]\n\n5. Sample whose characteristics correspond to those of the original population or reference population.\n\n6. Sample collected from a container offered for sale or distribution using a sampling method that obtains all components of regulated substance(s) in an unbiased and precise manner; and a sample that can be used to infer that the composition of regulated substance(s) in a population of containers offered for sale or distribution that constitute, or are derived from, the batch, are within stated tolerances.",
  "subject": "Policy and guidance",
  "references": [
    "Drinking Water Technical & Legal Terms; Terms of Environment; EPA 2005b",
    "Program Evaluation Glossary",
    "40 CFR 260.10 (CFR 2013)",
    "Thesaurus of Terms Used in Microbial Risk Assessment",
    "CDC Epidemiology Glossary",
    "40 CFR 84.3 (CFR 2024)"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/representative-sample/"
}