unit (item/portion/individual)

Each of the discrete, identifiable portions of material suitable for removal from a population as a sample or as a portion of a sample, and which can be individually considered, examined or tested, or combined. In the case of sampling bulk materials (or large packages), the units are increments, created by a sampling device. In the case of packaged materials, the unit may vary with the level of commercial distribution. For example, an individual piece of candy is the sampling unit at the consumer level; a package of individual pieces is the sampling unit at the retail level; a carton of packages is the sampling unit at the wholesale level; a pallet of cartons is the shipping unit at the distribution centre level; and a truckload of pallets is the consignment unit at the manufacture level. Before packaging, the bin containing the individual pieces would be the bulk lot (or batch) for sampling.