<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The differences or equivalence of products depend on various sources of variability like analytical methods, manufacturing processes, agricultural practices and environmental conditions. In addition, the capacity to compare and discriminate accurately two products is impacted by the number of characteristics considered for the comparison. Previously, it has been shown that a comparison of two products can be performed using the critical difference (CD), because it takes into consideration both the variability of measurements and laboratories. However, some additional sources of variability need to be added in the comparison when products were not manufactured at the same period of time or in the same factory. Here, an extended critical difference is proposed including manufacturing process variability according to the number of samples and batches collected for each product. The general formula and specific cases corresponding to different situations (one <italic>vs</italic> two labs, short <italic>vs</italic> long periods of time, same <italic>vs</italic> different periods of time, one <italic>vs</italic> several batches) are given.</p></abstract>

The differences or equivalence of products depend on various sources of variability like analytical methods, manufacturing processes, agricultural practices and environmental conditions. In addition, the capacity to compare and discriminate accurately two products is impacted by the number of characteristics considered for the comparison. Previously, it has been shown that a comparison of two products can be performed using the critical difference (CD), because it takes into consideration both the variability of measurements and laboratories. However, some additional sources of variability need to be added in the comparison when products were not manufactured at the same period of time or in the same factory. Here, an extended critical difference is proposed including manufacturing process variability according to the number of samples and batches collected for each product. The general formula and specific cases corresponding to different situations (one vs two labs, short vs long periods of time, same vs different periods of time, one vs several batches) are given.

Extension of Critical Difference for Product Comparison. Application to Tobacco Products

Contributions to Tobacco & Nicotine Research

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The differences or equivalence of products depend on various sources of variability like analytical methods, manufacturing processes, agricultural practices...

Extension of Critical Difference for Product Comparison. Application to Tobacco Products

Published Online: Feb 01, 2020

Page range: 310 - 316

Received: Jul 25, 2019

Accepted: Dec 02, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/cttr-2019-0012

Keywords
Product comparison, critical difference, tobacco product, mainstream cigarette smoke, measurement variability

© 2019 Thomas Verron et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Extension of Critical Difference for Product Comparison. Application to Tobacco Products

Published Online: Feb 01, 2020

Page range: 310 - 316

Received: Jul 25, 2019

Accepted: Dec 02, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/cttr-2019-0012

KeywordsProduct comparison, critical difference, tobacco product, mainstream cigarette smoke, measurement variability

© 2019 Thomas Verron et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Product comparison, critical difference, tobacco product, mainstream cigarette smoke, measurement variability