I've had some questions asked that I thought would be good for this AMA, particularly around sterilisation.
- Vials:
Vials come in sealed trays however they are not sterilised from factory. They are removed from their packaging and boiled to remove any contaminants, they're then added to an iso-prop'd tray and are baked in the the oven until dry at 100c. We also have an autoclave and will use its drying function (100c+) in conjunction with the oven when doing larger batches - the autoclave is quite small though so its only a supplement to the oven. We also sterilise as vials are needed so vials aren't sitting around collecting dust.
- Rubber stoppers:
These are boiled too but we also prepare an iso-prop bath prior to applying them to a vial. Also worth nothing that we use a sturdier double prong stopper which can be pierced multiple times without worrying about pieces of rubber falling into your vial. Although it can happen on occasion, it's rarer.
- Beakers and media bottles (+lids):
These are scrubbed using hospital grade detergents, thoroughly washed, then baked in the oven to dry before being sealed again so they're ready for their next use. This is done immediately after each cook - nothing ever sits around dirty.
- Oil Filtration:
We use a supor hydrophilicpolyethersulfone filter membrane which first goes through a 0.8µm pre-filter and then again through a 0.2 µm filter. This takes filtering a lot longer however it guarantees that the end product achieves sterile filtration. We use motorised vacuum pumps to pump out of the cooking beaker, through the filtration membranes, and finally into the sterilised media bottles.
- Moving the oils from media bottle into the vials:
We use bottle top dispensers which are disassembled and fully sterilised prior to each use - like these ones.
We've also started a trial of an automatic liquid dispensor with a foot operated pedal that fills vials - it attaches directly onto a media bottle screw-top and has an extendable telescope tube to draw out from the media bottle. It's a lot faster, but requires a lot more dismantling to flush out and clean. We also have a clear screen guard between the pumping apparatus and the operator. This avoid anything unwanted falling into the vials. Once vialed, they're rubber stopped and then immediately crimped almost like a production line (pump into vial -> stopper applied -> flip-lid set and crimped). We use an automatic machine operated crimper to ensure a solid and consistent seal every time.
- PPE & Handling:
Hair nets and masks are worn. All sterilised items are handled using Nitrile powder-free NFPA 1999/UL certified disposable gloves which are sprayed with iso-prop upon application. We do not cross contaminate and will switch gloves between tasks in the cooking and vialling process.
Some of these practices may be overkill and are costly to set up right, but we don't cut costs or corners especially when it comes to sterilisation. At the end of the day these are products that are going into your body and I wouldn't feel comfortable selling a product that I wouldn't feel confident in using myself.
And please note that while we (and many other of the reputable labs here on Evo) do take all of these extensive measures and precautions, just know that we are still human. Anything kind of labour that requires a human or manual intervention is subject to unforeseen circumstances. We're human, not robots. So while we do this everyday and 99.999% of the time we're getting the result we've worked so hard to achieve, there's still that 0.0001% chance that something may happen - whether it be a small foreign artefact falling into a via but we do every humanly possible thing we can to avoid this from happening.
We do have QA processes in place to avoid this ever making its way to a customer, but just remember that that single condition does not mean the operating environment is unsanitary, it just means exactly that: we're human - no one is immune to issues, we're all trying our best to deliver the absolute best to you guys.
Unless you're a dodgy lab intentionally cutting corners, then this will be almost immediately come to light in their finished product - then its open season on those suckers
Hope you've found this informational. Happy to answer any more questions.
AJ