> we got back reports of butyric levels in our honey... > ...makes me wonder how much science there is behind > a lot of residue testing, both the theory and the practice, > and how much is just plain old fanciful extrapolation and > other forms of guessing. Assuming that the above was not a rhetorical rant, it is difficult to imagine that anyone doing any form of residue testing would indulge in "guessing". But lying is not guessing, is it? I would be much less suspicious of someone who refuses to consider purchasing your honey as a result of such testing than I would be of someone who leverages "residues" as an excuse to offer a lower price, or a lower-than contracted price. Anyone testing should be able to describe at least their equipment. This would define the inherent limits of the tests that were done. For the specific case of Albertans, Beemaid was rumored to still be using a Gas Chromatograph as recently as 2001, which limits them to roughly a 5 ppm detection floor for just about everything. While I agree that one has to ask pointed questions about "detections" that are right at the limit of detection for the technology in use, I doubt that anyone could cry "false positive" about results from a circa 1980s GC or GC/MS, even if the level was near 5 ppm. Therefore, in the event of "impossible" results, I would suspect confusion about which sample was which (or which drums are whose) before I would suspect either the lab gear or the technician's use thereof. Regardless, a prudent person keeps several jars from each extraction to use as "reference samples" in the event of such confusion. jim (Flip back and forth between CSPAN-1 coverage of US House and Senate debates and CSPAN-2 coverage of the British House of Commons "Question Time" sometime. Its scary just how much more articulate and better-prepared Tony Blair is than any US politician since Jimmy Carter has been.) :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::