Essential Oils – Quality Matters!
Essential Oils – Quality Matters!
Is there a difference in essential oil quality? Yes!
95% of essential oils sold are adulterated. How do you tell what is safe in an unregulated industry? Linda Simon, Director Fit to Live used to help train manufacturing companies on quality systems. It doesn’t matter if they say they have good quality. Only a good quality system will ensure consistent quality. A good quality system has quality procedures for every step of the quality process. They audit and do on-site inspections of themselves and their vendors to make sure their quality standards are followed. They take corrective action when necessary and demonstrate continuous improvement.
Linda contacted essential oil companies to see if they met her quality standards. Here are a few of her quality criteria. You can do your own research. Email info@fittolivetoday.com for more detailed key questions to ask about essential oil and wellness companies’ quality systems.
Company tests every batch and has 3rd party (independent lab) certify that the essential oils meet international standards established for essential oils.
Plants are grown without pesticides.
Company is holistic and does not use any toxic ingredients in any of their products. Companies who sell essential oils often sell skin and hair care products, deodorants, etc. I ask for their ingredients list of these products. If they have toxic ingredients or ones that are carcinogenic, hormone disrupting or neuro-toxic then I know they don’t walk their talk. They don’t have a company culture promoting quality and practicing a holistic approach to health. They may say their product is natural but if they have ingredients that damage my health I’m not interested in being their customer.
Company has own farms and produce many of their own essential oils and has a quality system in place to ensure quality standards are being met. No company that has an extensive line of essential oils grows all their own plants. There are certain areas in the world that you can get certain essential oils, however if a company has its own farms and distillation right there, they have a lot more control of the quality of essential oil that is produced.
A quality system, where they have on-site inspections and testing for all of their essential oils sources, as well as, auditing every step of the manufacturing process, is critical to ensure their quality procedures are followed. If they don’t have this there is no way they can guarantee good quality.
The only company that Fit to Live found that meets these criteria is Young Living. I’ve been very impressed with their commitment to quality and their customer service. I have never found a company before that I could recommend any of their products without hesitation because of their high standards and quality. Check out their quality system – Seed to Seal. It’s impressive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yheQCOPxQM.
For more details on quality systems go to article: How to Choose Essential Oils.
Frankincense resin that is sold in Somalia costs between $30,000 and $35,000 per ton. To properly distill Frankincense requires approximately 12 hours releasing all the healing constituents. Frankincense oil that sells for $25 per ounce is invariably made in a cheaper process (high temp/short time to keep expense down) and they are “cut” with synthetics to keep cost down too. Another huge caution is the distilling vats are cleaned with solvents adding toxicity to the oil. Proctor and Gamble uses twice as much essential oil as is produced in the entire world. Just because it says, “100% pure therapeutic grade” doesn’t mean anything in the cosmetic arena. In the U.S. only 5% real oil needs to be present to be labeled 100% therapeutic.
Cheap, synthetic, diluted oils are potentially toxic. Therefore, it is very important that you use only high quality essential oils from a trusted source. Fit to Live has tough quality criteria for selecting products. Anything you put on your skin gets absorbed into your blood stream in 26 seconds. You want pure products!
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