The reason that we will always choose Young Living for our family can be summed up in three words: SEED TO SEAL
What is Seed to Seal?
Seed to Seal is Young Living’s beautiful, comprehensive commitment to incredible quality at every single step of the process - from growing the seed of the plant to bottling it and shipping it to your doorstep.
I have been to our farm in Mona, Utah twice and gotten to see this first hand. It’s truly amazing to see. I’ve gotten to watch the distilling process happen before my eyes. I was able to plant seeds and seedlings into the earth that are going to grow into plants that will one day be distilled and packaged and sent out to families around the world. Every bit of it is right there for you to see, and that transparency and integrity solidifies my love for Young Living over and over again.
What does this look like practically?
CYPRESS ESSENTIAL OIL: which has 280 known chemical constituents.
If it is distilled for 20 hours you only get 20 properties.
If distilled for 26 hours you get NONE of the properties.
Most market cypress is distilled for 3.5 hours.
The correct length of time for distilling cypress is 24 hours to get the full 280 properties.
If you want Cypress to do the job it is intended to do, you absolutely must get ALL 280 constituents - no more, no less. Most people don’t know that essential oils have chemical properties in them and in order to get the full benefit out of that particular oil it has to be grown, harvested, and distilled the correct way or the oil contains no benefit to us. This is absolutely crucial!
SOURCING STANDARD
The Young Living Essential Oils Sourcing Standard helps ensure a high level of quality and authenticity of essential oils while encouraging responsible practices of production and processing at all stages in the supply chain.
Young Living works with SCS Global, a leader in the environmental and sustainability certification, auditing, testing, and standards development, to develop the Young Living Essential Oils Sourcing Standard.
Supply Chain: The Young Living Essential Oils Sourcing Standard applies to all stages of the Young Living essential oil supply chain, including farms, wildcrafting operations, processing facilities (e.g., distilleries), as well as Young Living-owned facilities. It applies to Young Living corporate-owned farms, partner farms, and Seed to Seal-certified suppliers.
Sourcing Standard Details: Young Living and all of our partners must meet the highest standards in:
Authentication
Agricultural Practices
Harvesting & Collection
Extraction & Distillation Practices
Testing
Traceability
Storage & Bottling
STRINGENT, UNYIELDING QUALITY
Quality starts at the farm and is proven in our labs. Through our stringent, unyielding quality benchmarks, we are able to identify the most pure, genuine, and effective ingredients.
Our quality control team uses a battery of physical, chemical, and microbiological scientific tests to measure the exact components and properties of our essential oils. Each test is repeated numerous times during the quality process. Testing begins at our farms and continues all the way through the final stages prior to shipment to our customers.
Our team of highly trained, highly skilled scientists perform state-of-the-art tests, including but not limited to:
Densitometry
Viscometry
Refractometry
Olfactometry
Polarimetry
Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS)
Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES)
Gas Chromatography (GC)
High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy
Automated Micro-Enumeration
Accelerated Stability Testing
Disintegration
pH
Microscopy
Combustibility
Flash Point
Water Activity
Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS)
Chiral Chromatography
Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS)
While our labs can conduct all of these tests, we routinely use our third-party labs to supplement our internal testing. Each of these labs have highly skilled and trained scientists.
LACEY ACT COMPLIANCE PROGRAM
Not only is our Lacey Act Compliance Program comprehensive, it is also the first in the essential oils industry that has been reviewed and accepted by the government. It is the gold standard for compliance programs, and we are proud to have gone above and beyond any of our competitors to establish it. We are engaging top legal experts around the world to keep us advised of the most current laws, as well as to inform us how to appropriately apply them to our most important business needs.
Our team has been working collaboratively with our corporate-owned farms, partner farms, Seed to Seal-certified suppliers, and the government for more than a year to develop this new program.
We also continually work with environmental experts around the world to keep us advised on the protection of delicate landscapes and plants.
The Lacey Act Compliance Program consists of five general steps that when followed will help ensure that our essential oil products and partners comply with all laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we do business.
These five steps are:
Supplier EducationProvide all suppliers with the basic requirements of the Lacey Act.
Supplier EvaluationDetermine which products to source and which suppliers to partner with by evaluating “product risk” and “supplier risk” factors.
Supplier CertificationAfter providing training on the Lacey Act and our Compliance Program, suppliers will be required to execute the Young Living Lacey Act Compliance Certification.
Risk AssessmentAs part of the certification, each supplier and plant product will be assigned a risk category that will determine the level of approvals needed to partner with, or source plant products for Young Living. Both suppliers and plant products are independently assessed.
Auditing/MonitoringBased on the risk factors, Young Living has developed an ongoing auditing and monitoring program. The new Lacey Act Compliance Program is designed to cover all individuals and organizations in the supply chain.
This gold standard program sets the precedent for the industry and demonstrates Young Living’s commitment to lead the essential oils movement by protecting delicate landscapes and plants.