A new variables acceptance sampling plan for food safety

•A new variables inspection plan for food safety is proposed.•The new plan is based on sinh–arcsinh function rather than log transformation.•The proposed plan is not only robust but also leads to better consumer protection.•The procedure is illustrated with a real life example.

Variables sampling plans for microbial safety are usually based on the log transformation of the observed counts. We propose a new variables plan for lognormal data using the angular transformation. In a comparison with the classic approach, this new method shows more stringency and allows the use of smaller sample sizes to obtain the same level of consumer protection. This transformation is robust when the underlying distribution departs from the lognormal distribution as well as in the presence of contamination. A description of the new plan and the software codes are provided.