You may have heard or seen doTERRA calling their essential oils, ‘CPTG Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade.’
But what exactly does this mean?
Well, the problem is that there is no universal standard for the quality of essential oils. So, there is, and I’ve seen this myself, a wide variation in quality of oils across brands.
doTERRA has created their own standard, and they call it CPTG – Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade.
So this is a term unique to doTERRA and is, in fact, a registered trademark to them.
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What Makes Their Oils CPTG and Is This Good?
There is quite a lengthy and complicated process that their oils go through from harvesting to manufacturing.
By creating this CPTG tag, doTERRA is really trying to build confidence and assurance that they are manufacturing the highest quality oils and putting them through some strict testing.
They outline four steps in their literature:
Chemistry – They added some additional steps to checking the chemical composition to guarantee they meet the expected profile.
Physical – doTERRA has a series of physical tests to check all oils meet their standards, although what these standards are I’m not 100%.
Contamination – This step should give you a little peace of mind. They test for contamination before moving on to the final stages of production.
On-Going – doTERRA say they are committed to ongoing stability testing of their oils to ensure each and every bottle maintains its purity and efficacy for as long as you will be using it.
Are There Other CPTG Essential Oil Brands?
No, there aren’t. Because it’s a term coined by doTERRA and they have a trademark on it they would have to endorse another brand to use it and to-date I have not seen that they have done this.
I’ve seen other brands making similar claims and using different abbreviations. But each brand has their own standards and can choose to label their process how they wish.
Is doTERRA Approved by the FDA?
In a word, no.
Essential oils are not regulated by the FDA (The U.S. Food and Drug Administration) and do not require approval. The FDA has also come down hard on some essential oil companies, doTERRA included about making claims that aren’t true about oils.
Should Buying CPTG Essentials Make a Difference?
In theory, it should, yes. doTERRA is a huge company and have the funds in their budget to implement these stringent tests to ensure they are producing the highest quality oils.
Not all companies have the means to impose a standard like this, neither will a lot of companies out of choice.
So it’s an added seal of approval in my opinion. I like seeing companies being proactive and making forward-thinking moves to improve the quality of their products.
Now, I will be the first to say that we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. And, without any universal standards regulated by an outside party, there isn’t any real ‘proof’ that all these tests take place – that’s something we need to take their word for.
The real proof is in the quality of the product. I’ve always said that doTERRA produce one of, if not the highest quality oils.
They are one of the most expensive too, so all this additional testing comes at a price. But this is a choice that comes down the end user.
I’m a MA, (CMT) Certified Massage Therapist, Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT), and Reiki Master — I’m a licensed massage therapist with over 10 years of experience in the industry.