Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade vs. Organic

So are doTERRA essential oils considered USDA Organic if they are also 100% pure of fillers, preservatives, and pesticides?!

This is a great question!! So glad you asked. ;)

Long story short, the reason doTERRA is not USDA Organic is because they created an even better quality for their oils by being Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade (CPTG). Let me explain…

To be considered organic by the USDA, the item has to have at least 95% certified organic content and may not contain any artificial preservatives, colors or flavors and cannot be grown using pesticides, herbicides, or genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Therefore, USDA Organic is a term used mostly for the growing conditions for food produce and agriculture and is not specific for doTERRA essential oils. Even under organic standards, there is no specific quality of composition for essential oils mandated by the FDA. This means essential oil companies bearing the USDA Organic label can differ quite a bit in range of quality based on a variety of things including source of plants, harvest time, and even distillation methods. While it can be used for some essential oils you may see at health markets, these are being used for their food grade and not for the therapeutic health benefits. I also mentioned before, some essential oil companies add fillers or carrier oils after all is said and done and can still be labeled as pure by FDA regulations if there is at least 5% of the essential oil in the bottle. So just because the plant used may have been USDA organic, the oil itself is not 100% pure.

There are also differences in where these oils are grown and how these oils may be distilled. For example, if we grow lavender here in Wisconsin without using pesticides, herbicides, or GMOs it would be considered organic and may smell pretty, but it will have very little therapeutic value. But if we grow lavender in France, where it is indigenous, without the use of pesticides, herbicides, and GMOs … it will also be organic, but have all the therapeutic benefits from the plant growing and responding to its natural environmental factors (climate, soil conditions, and weather to name a few). This produces the best essential oils, aka the immune system of the plant, to better the health benefits for us as well. It’s also important when you harvest the plant. Different harvest times provide different qualities in each batch of essential oil. This ties back to why bacteria can’t become resistant to essential oils, because each batch will have slightly different qualities so the bacteria will never be able to adapt to one mechanism! Even distillation methods can contribute to potency, but now I’m getting to a whole other topic!

With all that being said and a few tangents, doTERRA created their own certification to ensure 100% purity and potency. They grow the plants in their indigenous environment and harvest them at the right times for the best therapeutic benefits. After the oils are distilled, they go through a series of rigorous testing (for the science people out there this includes: Gas Chromatography, Mass Spectrometry, FTIR Scan, Microbial Testing, and Organoleptic Testing). doTERRA actually outsources their oils to an independent, third party laboratory for all testing. This series of testing ensures for the correct chemical composition, no heavy metals, no pollutants, no pesticides, no GMOs, no bacteria, no fungus, no mold or other harmful organisms. And lastly, that the essential oils look, smell, taste, and feel the way they are supposed to. Technically, doTERRA could label the essential oils with the USDA Organic label, but they chose to go above and beyond that as you can tell in this lengthy response. This makes me so proud to share their oils with you and why I choose them over any other company!