It is our opinion that what we can do is stop "assuming & believing" every tom, rick, harry, & susy that answers an email inquiry. In most corporations, the person/people that knows exactly what chemicals are in the flavors offered, are NOT the ones answering customer emails.
Linda from TFA and Tom from Capella's answer e-mails directly. As a matter of fact, they are the only ones that have replied to my e-mails when I contacted either company and it's not because I have a direct link to either of them, nor do I have a huge wholesale account. They are simply the ones who respond and it's been that way since I started dealing with both companies.
Does that mean all companies have the owner, co-owner, CEO, President, etc answering e-mail? No, but given the nature of the question, I'm sure it's something that has been asked dozens of times before this thread and will be answered probably dozens more by those who don't read this thread or those posted in the future. CSR's or whoever they pay to answer e-mails have most likely already answered it and to get that answer, they had to ask someone. Why? Because given state of affairs and the sue-happy nations, giving false information would technically be grounds for a lawsuit if someone can prove otherwise.
False information and false advertising are two of the quickest ways to see legal action, especially in the US and e-mails can be used, despite the private communication notices that some companies use in the footers. So with that in mind, they honestly have no reason to lie or give out information that would harm their business. They would be better of simply telling us "I don't know", which would save hassle and all future time.
We appreciate anyone willing to spend their time sending emails & getting responses - but for those responses to be taken seriously, they need to be backed up with proof...and that's something any company has 'at the ready' when they're going to make claims about anything.
It's because we do keep that fact in mind, that we can assume that flavor vendors do not go to the expense to test for chemicals in their flavors that are GRAS.
We all can set our own criteria for what we buy and what we consider to be "essential integrity". For us, ANY vendor that allows their products to be sold 'for vaping' (which increases their sales substantially...thousands? tens of thousands? of dollars monthly), has a responsibility to prove their safety claims. We would even be so extreme as to believe & suggest that any vendor that is willing to make money from vapers, should be willing to do whatever in takes to make sure their flavors do not contain ANY known harmful chemicals.
Since flavors are specifically designed for the baking and cooking industry, I don't see many companies running GC/MS testing on every single flavor in the too near future because of the costs to do so. FW alone has 200+ flavors, OOO is approaching the same number and as TFA and Capella's grow, they'll add to their line-up.
TFA and Capella's may be doing GC/MS or other testing to help us out, but they are not obligated to do so. We chose to use their flavors and honestly, it's not our business to tell them "this has to be done, or else." We can always talk with our money, but they were in business before we vaped and they'll be in business after we're done (should vaping ever end). Congrats to them for stepping up, but who are we to say that it is their responsibility to do testing?
It'd be different if companies were giving exact amounts, such as what was provided by Sarah from FlavorWest, but the other 99% are not. They state it's in there or it's not. As for the amounts listed from the e-mail from Sarah, those are pretty specific amounts to just be pulled out of thin air.
All that being said, even Tom stated that there are other ways of keeping the flavor without using Diacetyl, Acetoin or Acetyl Proprionyl, which is how they're developing their new Vanilla Custard flavor which doesn't contain any of those chemicals. Perhaps FW uses a similar method in some of their flavors? I don't know, but unless someone else is willing to step up and buy one of every single flavor on the market and put it through testing, the best thing we have is what the vendors are telling us and when they are giving out specific details, it's a bit hard to discredit that.
. As for paying for the testing, most vendors simply aren't going to do it due to the costs of testing. Some do, most won't. When it comes to getting information, it's best to go to the source and in MBV's case, that appears to be Flavor West. They can either tell us what's in there, or tell us they don't know, but given the specific information from the e-mail, I would bank on them actually knowing and being honest.
