Have questions about sending your kelp to a lab for testing?
-
Tis the season for sending kelp samples off for nutritional and compositional analysis. Farmers and buyers: Are you new to the process and don't know where to begin?
Check out the Cultivated Seaweed Testing Guide put together by GreenWave's market development team. Scroll down to page 9 to access a script with the questions you should ask the lab to assess whether they have methods and standards required to handle your request. Don't know which lab to contact? See page 12 for a short list of labs with seaweed testing experience.
Last year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released the Dietary Supplement Laboratory Quality Assurance Program final report. The program measured things like nutrients, heavy metals, and contaminants in kelp, and found big differences in accuracy depending on the lab and method used. To get reliable results, it's important to choose a lab that uses standardized methods and certified reference materials.
Ask the lab you're working with if they participated in the NIST study and/or if they have certified reference materials (CRMs) to use to calibrate their instruments and compare results. Specifically, you can ask if the lab references NIST SRM (standard reference material) 3232 (kelp powder, Thallus laminariae) in their testing protocols. Absence or inadequate use of CRMs may yield inaccurate results.
Have more questions? Post them here and I'll tag people from the Community to weigh in.
Here's the full NIST report for your reading pleasure:
NIST.IR.8494
