Proving the Authenticity of Natural Ingredients With ASTM D6866 Carbon-14 Analysis
Carbon-14 analysis is a useful tool to authenticate natural ingredients and support label claims.
Complete the form below to unlock access to ALL audio articles.
Natural product testing by carbon-14 analysis provides manufacturers of flavors, fragrances, essential oils and other natural ingredients with a reliable tool to validate natural content. Results reveal the percentage of natural (biobased carbon) versus fossil-derived ingredients in a sample in order to identify whether it contains adulterants. Such results are valuable for validating ingredient authenticity and supporting natural claims.
Measuring biobased content with carbon-14 analysis
Growing consumer interest in natural products has led to an increase in the use of biomass-sourced, or biobased, ingredients in recent years. Industry growth comes with the challenge of validating the authenticity of natural products that are susceptible to economically motivated, fraudulent behaviors, such as adulteration with fossil-derived ingredients. In light of these challenges, and in order to support label claims and preserve consumer trust, natural ingredient manufacturers and distributors need a reliable third-party method to ensure their ingredients are truly natural and their marketing claims are supported by accurate scientific data.
Carbon-14 analysis is one such method. Based on international standards ASTM D6866 and ISO 16620-2, carbon-14 natural product testing is conducted using an accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) instrument and is applicable to samples in solid, liquid or gaseous form. Results reveal the percentage of a sample that is biobased carbon, or sourced from biomass (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Carbon-14 analysis determines the percentage of fossil carbon and biobased carbon in a sample. Credit: Beta Analytic.
All living organisms contain carbon-14, however, its detection limit is approximately 43,500 years.1 This methodology reliably identifies whether petrochemical components are present because the carbon-14 will have already decayed out of petrochemical-sourced materials. Analysis detects the biomass portion of the sample. Thus, a sample resulting in a value of 100% biobased carbon content indicates that it is completely natural, or biomass-sourced, while a value of 0–99% biobased carbon content indicates the ingredient is wholly or partially composed of petrochemical ingredients.
A solution to natural ingredient adulteration
Natural product testing via carbon-14 analysis is ideal for proving ingredients are naturally sourced, by identifying the percentage that is sourced from biomass. This data serves as an excellent tool during the R&D phase of product development to monitor biobased content goals, and in manufacturing and distribution to ensure ingredients can stand up to scrutiny into natural marketing claims. Due to high demand and consumer preference, practices like ingredient adulteration can weaken consumer trust with false label claims and the use of undisclosed fossil-derived ingredients.
Adulteration occurs when the quality of a product or its ingredients is altered for economic benefit, such as by substituting lower-quality ingredients or adding artificial ingredients.2 There are economic advantages to using fossil-derived ingredients instead of their natural counterparts as they are cheaper and easier to obtain. Certain ingredients that are commonly adulterated due to the cost of or difficulty in their procurement include turmeric, saffron and vanilla extract.3
Fraudulent practices such as adulteration are prevalent since natural and fossil-derived ingredients are chemically identical, making common test methods unreliable when it comes to distinguishing between the two. Natural product testing via carbon-14 measurement provides accurate data to prove naturality and identify adulterated ingredients by determining whether ingredients are natural in source.
Identifying falsely labeled peppermint oil: A case study
A case study published in 2018 highlights the accuracy of carbon-14 analysis in distinguishing the difference between natural and artificial peppermint oil despite their identical chemical composition.4 Five peppermint oils from different manufacturers that claimed to be 100% natural were tested via carbon-14 natural product testing (Figure 2).
Figure 2: The biobased content of peppermint oil products measured compared to label claims. Credit: Beta Analytic.
Only three of the peppermint oil samples were determined to be 100% natural, biomass-sourced products. The other two samples were found to have petrochemical adulteration, with one of the samples measuring at only 1% biobased content and the other 49% biobased. These two samples show the importance of a reliable method to validate ingredient authenticity and prove label claims, as they were labeled as “natural” despite containing less than 50% of biomass-sourced content.
Although carbon-14 analysis cannot identify specific adulterants, this case study demonstrates how this method can provide reliable third-party data for identifying the percentage of biomass-derived natural ingredients in a given sample. Other common testing methods for detecting adulteration, such as GC-MS, chiral testing and isotope ratio mass spectrometry testing, are not able to differentiate petrochemical-derived adulterants from their chemically identical natural counterparts. Thus, carbon-14 testing is the most accurate method for determining the presence and proportions of fossil-derived adulterants, or if the sample is truly natural.
Conclusion
Carbon-14-based natural product testing is a reliable third-party analytical method for proving ingredient source by measuring the biomass-derived portion of a sample. Petrochemical-derived components can be detected to counter fraudulent practices such as adulteration and fraudulent label claims. Results can aid natural product manufacturers and R&D teams in proving the authenticity of their ingredients and ensuring marketing claims are accurate.
