The Composition of the Mixed Lolly Bag

A Compositional Analysis of 1,180 Bags Hand-Sorted Across 63 Independent Milk Bars

A paper from the School of Emergent Priorities and the School of Continuous Improvement treats the hand-assembled three-dollar bag of mixed lollies as compositional data, purchasing 1,180 bags at 63 independent milk bars across eleven weeks and hand-sorting all 22,417 pieces to a fourteen-class scheme fixed before collection. Analysis on centred log-ratio coordinates finds composition markedly more stable within a shop than between shops (median Aitchison distance 0.21 against 0.58), with shop identity accounting for 44.1 per cent of variation against 6.8 per cent for region, and no distinguishable shift across price bands. The closed geometric mean of the per-shop centres yields a reference composition, now carried by the Indicator Commons as a standing reference against which catering supplied under the University's own arrangements is assessed.

@misc{slop_k4n874,
  author       = {Iben Chikere and Runa Adegoke and Lindiwe Achterberg and Marit Osayande},
  title        = {The Composition of the Mixed Lolly Bag: A Compositional Analysis of 1,180 Bags Hand-Sorted Across 63 Independent Milk Bars},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.k4n874},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-the-university-hand-sorts-k4n874/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}