The process Young Living uses when planting, cultivating, harvesting, and distilling a batch of oil is crucial to retaining its vital compounds. Without the exact blend of naturally-occurring plant chemicals, an essential oil can lose its beneficial properties and fail to produce the desired effect.
Young Living Therapeutic Grade (YLTG) means that every essential oil Young Living distills or sources has the optimal naturally-occurring blend of constituents to maximize the desired effect. Young Living is able to make this assertion because of our strict cultivation process—illustrated by the Four Ps—that guarantees the optimal potency of every Young Living essential oil.
An oil's potency can be affected not only by selecting the proper plant to cultivate, but also by where the plant is grown, the quality of soil in which the seed is planted, and even the time of day it's harvested.
Young Living has extensive experience selecting the correct species of plant for desired oil potency, planting under optimal conditions, using ideal soil and natural methods to encourage growth, and knowing the precise time to harvest each crop. Only those plants that produce the most active and widest array of therapeutic compounds are selected.
Once the optimal soil, plant, cultivation, and harvesting conditions have been adhered to, the plants must be distilled properly in order to meet Young Living Therapeutic Grade standards. Young Living uses a gentle, proprietary technique for steam-extracting the most potent essential oils, which remains unmatched throughout the essential oils industry.
To meet Young Living Therapeutic Grade distillation standards proper temperature must be maintained throughout the distillation process, and pressure, length of time, equipment, and batch size are strictly monitored.
Young Living Therapeutic Grade standards prohibit the acceptance of any diluted, cut or adulterated oils. Every product Young Living produces—essential oils, oil blends, nutritional supplements, or personal care—meets strict purity standards.
Every batch of essential oils is subjected to rigorous, state-of-the-art analysis at the Young Living chemistry lab. Using some of the most advanced equipment in the world, our scientists subject every batch of essential oils to Gas Chromatograph and Mass Spectrometer testing, and heavy metals analysis. Oils that exhibit even the slightest hint of possible adulteration or tampering are rejected.
The culmination of the preceding three stages, Potency means that the naturally occurring compounds contained in each essential oil product are of the highest and most consistent bioactive levels. Without strict adherence to the Young Living Therapeutic Grade standard in the Plant, Preparation, and Purity phases, the final product would not have the necessary potency to create the desired effect.
Young Living Opens Cutting-Edge Essential Oil Laboratory
May 16, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY—May 16, 2013—Young Living, the World Leader in Essential Oils®, has completed a major upgrade of its state-of-the-art testing and quality control laboratory in Spanish Fork, Utah. The newly expanded lab will further advance the testing methods of Young Living’s 100% pure, therapeutic-grade essential oils and supplemental products.
The new space is equipped with the most sophisticated testing equipment available. These high-tech instruments include a gas chromatograph and a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry (GC/MS), which break down components of the oil, identify purity and strength, and recognize any possible contaminants. An ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) instrument is used to test the occurrence of vitamins, minerals, and other critical components in Young Living’s dietary and personal-care products. This process further verifies the ingredients listed on every label of the products Young Living offers.
The lab, which has recently doubled its staff, employs PhDs, chemists, scientists, and microbiologists with decades of experience in the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical fields. The lab is an integral part of Young Living’s Seed to Seal® process, which ensures that every step of essential oil production is closely controlled—from the seeds sown to harvesting, testing, and bottling.
“We test everything that comes through Young Living—from raw materials to all finished goods and even the packaging to ensure optimal quality,” said Marian Curtis, Young Living’s director of quality and process optimization. “In addition, we utilize third-party audits to verify that purity and potency standards are consistently met and surpassed.”