Trying to find a place that will certify SHU of a product

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I can recommend ABC Labs in Florida and Southwest BioLabs in New Mexico.  I didn't look at the other links, but I would strongly suggest going with a lab that knows what they are doing.  From what I've heard, those doing the test need to have the machine calibrated and know how to do the test, what to read.
 
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Good luck.

I get asked a couple times a year what the rating of my sauce is - I shrug and say, "mild, medium, hot & xhot"

Seems like a waste of $ unlss you're trying to stake a claim on "the hottest ________ Category" of product.

Like, for SL's Pure Evil it's a necessary uh, evil (see what I did there?) but for "normal" sauce products I don't see a lot of return on that investment....
 
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I had Ghost Fire tested eons ago, not because I was expecting it to be superhot or something.  I just wanted to know.  Now I can tell people it's slightly hotter than Tabasco.  For the milder sauces, it's not worth the cost.  Saying it's 2:10 works for 99.9% of customers.   
 
 
For the capsaicin drops, it is a necessary Evil.  (AAAAhhhhh!  I see what you did there!  :lol: )
 
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Isn't it something that any college or university with a liquid chromatography machine can run? I thought it was just a test for capsaicin levels and I thought capsaicin is a single chemical.
 
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"Capsaicinoids are the name given to the class of compounds found present in members of the capsicum family of plants.  The most common of these compounds is
N-Vanillyl-8-methyl-6-(E)-noneamide, or Capsaicin for short (View a model of this molecule using Chime or VRML plugin). Nearly as common is Dihydrocapsaicin (Chime or VRML). These occur in varying ratios from plant to plant, from a 1:1 ratio to 2:1. Between them they typically make up 80-90% of the total capsaicinoid concentration, the rest being made up by such compounds as Nordihydrocapsaicin (Chime or VRML), Homocapsaicin (Chime or VRML),  and Homodihydrocapsaicin (Chime or VRML)."
 
Just as cannabis has different cannabinoids (THC, CBC, CBD, etc) chiles contain different levels of the different capsaicinoids.  These compounds effect the mouth differently so some chiles have a quick smack you in the mouth heat, others are a slow creaping burn, etc. 
 
From discussions I've had with labs, they have to have a machine that is calibrated for capsaicinoids, they also need to know how to read the results, what to look for, and how to process the samples.  Some labs I've contacted have told me they don't do SHU testing, they aren't set up for it, whatever.  While college and university labs can do a lot of food related tests, like pH, SHU testing is not a standard test for all labs. 
 
One troll  person who thought they knew more than 3 labs and had access to a HPLC machine, did a test and said Pure Evil 9.6mil wasn't even 5milSHU, claimed I was ripping people off, false advertising.  I've had about a dozen Pure Evil and related products SHU tested by 3 labs that are experienced doing SHU testing and all the items came back with SHU results at or above their stated SHU levels.  I think I trust a lab that's been doing HPLC pungency testing for 30 years and does SHU testing for the Chile Pepper Institute in NM as well as dozens of fresh chile growers/processors than some moron who works for a chemical company. 
 
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Inedible said:
Isn't it something that any college or university with a liquid chromatography machine can run? I thought it was just a test for capsaicin levels and I thought capsaicin is a single chemical.
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The SHU values given are the 3 major capsacinoids added together to get about 98% of all the heat.  In some ways that is true that most Universities can do it, but do they is another question.  See the problem that we keep "secret", or proprietary, is how to extract the oils for accurate and reliable testing of many types of samples (Poor extraction = lower or inconsistent values).    The HPLC testing itself takes months to develop a method, but once you have a good method it should be a problem to run. To me, it's all about the preparation before testing that really matters, and then having a robust HPLC method (which can take years, or hundreds of samples, actually) just gets you numbers so the tons of pepper products can keep moving around the country.
 
salsalady said:
One troll  person who thought they knew more than 3 labs and had access to a HPLC machine, did a test and said Pure Evil 9.6mil wasn't even 5milSHU, claimed I was ripping people off, false advertising.  I've had about a dozen Pure Evil and related products SHU tested by 3 labs that are experienced doing SHU testing and all the items came back with SHU results at or above their stated SHU levels.  I think I trust a lab that's been doing HPLC pungency testing for 30 years and does SHU testing for the Chile Pepper Institute in NM as well as dozens of fresh chile growers/processors than some moron who works for a chemical company. 
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Speaking of that we are having our 30th anniversary on Sept 19th if you're in Las Cruces, NM!   Just let me know and I'll tell you where the party is.
 
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Congrats, and thanks for the invite.  Sorry I won't be in the area though, it would be fun to join in.
 
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