Why packaging matters for natural oils (and especially essential oils)

Natural products aren’t automatically “clean” once they leave the still or press, they can pick up contaminants from the very thing meant to protect them: the container.

Essential oils and many liquid extracts are powerful chemicals, some even corrosive. If these are stored in the wrong plastic (or the wrong drum lining), they can "pull out" (using common language) chemicals of the packaging and into the product. One well-known example is phthalates, plasticizers used in some materials, which can migrate into the oils over time, especially with heat and long storage, and with the wrong container or drum.

What “good packaging” looks like in practice:
- Identify the contact layer before buying from a supplier: For drums/containers, ask if it is food/contact-grade HDPE (or verified compatible lining), not “mixed plastic” or unknown liners.

- For “corrosive” essential oils (for example Cymbopogon / lemongrass essential oil, among others): these can be especially aggressive to some plastics and coatings, in these situations plane aluminium is preferable.

- Compatibility testing in your existing laboratory is still the best practice.
Control the journey: heat during shipping/storage accelerates migration and degradation, so packaging spec + storage conditions go together.

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Scientific / science-news reads on this topic
- Environmental Health News (EHN): “Phthalates detected in 11 popular brands of essential oils”.
- ACS (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2010): “Analysis of Phthalate Migration from Plastic Containers to Packaged Food”.
- Journal of Food Science and Technology (Feb 2025): “Migration of phthalate compounds from PET bottles under different temperature conditions”.
- Springer: Reviews in Environmental Health (2025): review on migration of phthalates (and others) from plastic food packaging into foods.