I've been using lab molecules in limited quantities for nutrition/personal care (e.g., https://www.sigmaald...ng=en®ion=FR). I find this convenient but I've always had a few concerns about it and I promised myself to find a better alternative as soon as I could find time to do so. So here I am.
The Problem: Differences Between Products Intended for the Food Industry and Those Intended for Laboratory Applications
A large variety of molecules are available in various grades of purity from companies supplying laboratory products. Yet, at any given grade, requirements differ between the two types of applications. The same impurities that can be tolerated in high amounts in food products may interfere with many laboratory or industrial applications. Conversely, trace amounts of some other substances are immaterial in lab/industrial applications in spite of their long-term deleterious character in application to living organisms. Many heavy metals, for instance, are accumulated in living organisms and prolonged exposition to small amounts of those can result in serious long-term consequences. Other examples include mutagenic and/or carcinogenic substances such as various radioactive compounds, benzenes, formaldehyde, nitrosamines, PCBs, butadiene, styrenes, dioxins, chloroform, vinyl chloride, epoxide, ethylene oxide, acrylamide, etc. All these substances can be found separately either as products or by-products in various lab/industrial chemicals and/or their packaging. Though limited, regulation covering the food industry is more elaborate than that covering other industrial applications. While buying reagents with the highest grades of purity would partially solve the problem the price for those are out of my reach.
The Legal and Ethical Aspect:
Decision making and business processes are governed to a large extent by the perception of risks and benefits. The expected impact of a product's content is much different if the application has the potential to impact persons' health and lives. And just like product composition has a different impact depending on application, people and businesses will base the type and extent of attention they accord to the composition of their products on the use they expect their customers to make of them. Persons and entities are legally and ethically only responsible for the consequences of their actions that could have reasonably been expected.
The Practical Aspect:
The practical aspect is all that matters to me. For the average person, the relative importance of exogenous sources of genetic and epigenetic insult is probably not that high beyond early life. But the exogenous insults are readily influenced upon and as long as I don't waste time with it I'd rather have a passively controlled environment and preestablished routine avoiding them altogether. I would like to have one or two trustworthy sources—oriented towards nutritional applications—for most or all the molecules I might need. My needs are the opposite of those of a company in the food industry: I need a large variety of products in a small volume and I need a centralized and standardized provision. Even if volumes weren't an issue, it would be counterproductive for me if I had to waste time dealing with independent manufacturers and/or testing the batches for each product myself.
My Question:
Does anyone know of a single supplier for the food industry that ships in volumes compatible with the needs of an individual person and that offers the breadth of products that can be purchased from big companies supplying lab reagents?
