Articles on Quality

A Vital Test for Pesticides

At Vital Nutrients, nothing is more important than our promise of uncompromising quality in every bottle.

Recently, our standard independent lab testing on a batch of valerian extract found surprising results; several pesticides were confirmed, including detectable amounts of DDT and DDT breakdown products.

Vital Nutrients informed our supplier, who holds a strong reputation in the natural products industry. The supplier was shocked at the lab results. Their own testing on the valerian roots used to make the batch of powdered extract had found no detectable levels of pesticides. 

The raw material supplier had decades of experience extracting this product. Due to a strong correlation between pesticide-free starting materials producing a pesticide-free extract, their internal QC procedures required testing the starting raw material only and not the finished extract.

As a result of Vital Nutrients’ stringent test standards, our supplier’s long-standing QC procedures were reevaluated and revised to include testing the finished extract.

After evaluating the situation the supplier stated; “It seems we now will have to change this procedure because our pesticide analysis of the valerian batch you brought to our attention has confirmed the presence of the same pesticides that your analysis found and in similar quantities including detectable amounts of DDT.”  The raw material supplier General Manager continued, “Our next production of this extract will not happen until late next month and it may take us longer to complete as we may have to make extraction process adjustments/tests, etc. You will have to source this product elsewhere until we can once again guarantee that our production processes result in an extract that is pesticide free.” 

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