QUALITY
As Appeared in CFA Magazine on May 29 2006
BY TODD CLARK, VP OF OPERATIONS
at New Directions Aromatics Inc.
Quality seems to be a moving target within the world of Aromatherapy. Depending on what you read or whom you speak to, the guidelines and criteria change, and it doesn’t seem to matter whom you speak to - scientists, instructors, practitioners, and let’s not forget the variances between different countries and businesses.
The Quality Control standards we most often encounter as a vendor are as follows:
Perception versus Reality (Cost and Marketing Driven)
Spiritual & Organoleptic (“Spiritual” and “Sensory” testing)
General Physical Measures (Optical Rotation, Refractive Index and Specific Gravity) Chemical Analysis (Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry).
PART 1: Perception vs. Reality (Cost & Marketing)
Pricing is often the first level of quality evaluation. The perception is that expensive products mean higher quality (and prestige?). Cheaper products are of lower quality (with less prestige?). Is this accurate? Take a look at your shoes, your clothing, even your groceries. Whether we like it or not, this stigma influences all of us, and this same stigma is associated with Essential Oils. However, there are some differences.
Unlike most products designed for retail, 95% of Essential Oil is traded in large volumes for use in the food, perfume, manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries. Similarly, the distilleries sell 95% of their products to these industries in large volumes. Any vendor purchasing directly from distilleries will command lower prices, but they need to order large volumes. This is where Marketing enters the game.
We are conditioned to believe that higher prices mean better quality, but within the essential Oil industry this is not always the case. Buyers need to apply common sense and general business principles when considering price as a component of quality. Ask yourselves if the vendor you’re considering is large enough to purchase directly from distilleries? Can they physically warehouse and manipulate drums of 440 pounds? As a guideline, customers of smaller companies are more retail oriented, and prices will be correspondingly high. At the same time, they may indeed be carrying high quality oils.
Pricing is the most obvious quality indicator – most of us display it on-line requiring no commitment on your end - but it may not be accurate by retail standards. Consider your vendor’s customers, their volume, their capabilities and their track record. Try different suppliers and start evaluating using other criteria. You might be pleasantly surprised!
In the next article we will look at the 2 most common methods of quality evaluation: Spiritual and Organoleptic testing.
