DS 3077 Horizontal - a new standard for representative sampling. Design, history and acknowledgements

July 2013 saw the conclusion of a five-year project, design, development and quality assurance of a new generic sampling standard: DS 3077 Horizontal. DS 3077 Horizontal is published by the Danish Standardisation Authority (DS). Development of this standard was carried out by task force DS F-205. This contribution summarises the history of this endeavour, focuses on a few salient highlights and pays tribute to the taskforce and to a group of external collaborators responsible for initial proof-of-concept and the final practical quality assurance. DS 3077 describes the minimum Theory of Sampling (TOS) competence basis upon which any sampler must rely in that sampling can be documentable as representative, both with respect to accuracy and reproducibility. It represents a consensus based on industry, academe, official regulatory bodies, professionals, students and other interested individuals.