A little clarification, since I am the manufacturer of the flavouring you're maligning here (Decadent Vapours Absinthe).
Maligning? I was only quoting your observations from a post you made on ECF.
This sounds awfully dramatic, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt,
Thank you....
and assume this unscientific panic-mongering is due to ignorance of the basic chemistry, rather than anything more malicious.
.....for your patronage.....I was merely making relevant observations.
It is a fact of life that many essential oils can do this in strong solutions, and that essential oils are used in most ejuice flavourings (pretty much all fruit/spice flavours, and most tobacco flavours,) and more widely in many food flavourings.
Put Loranns Peppermint concentrate, or citrus oils, or spearmint snus in an HDPE bottle, and they have exactly the same effect (which is why Loranns use glass bottles for all their concentrates.) Make up a 5-10% solution and put that in the same HDPE bottle, and it doesn't - the excipients act as a buffer, and there's no corrosion.
It's exactly the same with the Absinthe - it's a perfectly safe product, made from approved food flavourings, but it contains natural essential oils (fully volatile,) that are incompatible with certain artificial compounds - specifically the material the dropper bottles are made out of. That's all.
I could solve the problem by diluting the concentrate, but that would end up making it weaker than most of my other concentrates, and would feel too much like giving short measure - I'd rather find compatible bottles, or a reformulation that will stabilize the oils to stop them doing this. Absinthe is very high in essential oils (they're what gives the drink its characteristic 'louche',) - higher than any of my other flavours, and that's why it's the one flavour causing this problem. But it's still made entirely from commercially produced, approved food flavouring concentrates.
Food corrosion is nothing new - there's a whole industry out there refining packaging techniques for foods that have a deleterious effect on containers. But are you never going to risk eating lasagna (oh no - it DISSOLVES ALUMINIUM!!! , or salt (Oh no - it EATS METAL!!! EVEN STAINLESS STEEL!!! ), or water (oh no - it CORRODES STEEL PIPES!!! ) Or Vinegar, Mentos, Coca Cola, Baking Soda, Soy sauce, and all the other foodstuffs that can undergo deleterious reactions in contact with the wrong substances?
I would sort of assume, seeing as how you proudly claim to produce the first "Made in UK" ejuice, that you might understand this much chemistry already, but apparently not. Or is it really just an attempt to score points at a time when we surely ought to all be pulling together?
As I said, observations of possible reasons for regulation.
For the record, and speaking purely for myself, I tend towards option 2 actually,
In that case, maybe not selling concentrated wormwood oils to the general public would be a responsible move in the right direction?
though I'd be more enthusiastic about it if the MHRA weren't so obviously biased.
I did mention in an earlier post that I don't mind other suppliers posting here but also that it is courteous to ask. No worries though so long as we keep it civil.
John.