AgTonik and Mineral Logic have adopted technical standards that give consumers a reliable and accurate way to compare products containing fulvic acid by just reading the product labels.
AgTonik, a manufacturer and supplier of fulvic acid products for plant and livestock use, and Mineral Logic, which makes and sells fulvic acid products for human consumption, both have adopted the Lamar Standardized Method for measuring the concentration of fulvic acid — a method that has become the de facto standard accepted by leading industry trade groups.
“Up until now, consumers were faced with the almost impossible task of making accurate comparisons of products containing fulvic acid because suppliers used different methods of measurement that could produce widely varying results,” said Ralf Ostertag, chief science officer at AgTonik and Mineral Logic.
Companies that use methods that measure both humic acid and fulvic acid as one substance generally overstate the concentration of fulvic acid on product labels, Ostertag said. Consumers who buy products tested under these methods will get an inaccurate sense of the strength of the fulvic acid component.
“Product samples that once tested between 9 and 10 percent fulvic acid content are coming in at less than 3 percent using the Lamar method,” he said. “Some samples of leonardite extractions that typically showed a 2 percent fulvic acid content will now result in less than ½ percent fulvic acid content.”
Leading trade organizations interested in the benefits of fulvic and humic acids have adopted the Lamar method as the recommended method for labeling fulvic acid concentrations on products, Ostertag said. This evens the playing field for companies that use the Lamar method and have been at a competitive disadvantage with companies that used other methods that regularly show higher fulvic acid concentrations.
The Association of American Plant Food Control Officials (AAPFCO), an organization that “strives to gain uniformity and consensus amongst the U.S., Puerto Rican, and Canadian fertilizer regulatory programs,” adopted the Lamar method after the Methods Forum XIV of its Annual Winter Meeting in Jacksonville, Fla. in 2015. The International Humic Substances Society (IHSS), an organization formed in Denver in 1981 “to bring together scientists in the coal, soil, and water sciences with interests in humic substances,” also has adopted the method as the standard to accurately measure fulvic acid concentrations, Ostertag said.
The Lamar method is one of the most expensive methods of testing products for fulvic acid, often costing more than $250 per sample.
“Regardless of the cost, AgTonik and Mineral Logic are committed to using this test exclusively because we know it gives our customers a true assessment of what they are buying,” Ostertag said. “Since adoption of the test is still voluntary in our industry, we encourage consumers who are doing comparison shopping to consider the test method when purchasing agricultural or human market fulvic acid products.”