By Elan Sudberg

In the wake of three mostly aberrant years, each less crappy (from a pandemic perspective) than its predecessor, I have high expectations (from an Alkemist perspective) for 2023. Our newest *best-year-in-history was 2021 and is now itself history. 2022 took the new lead as best-year-in-history. It was strategized to be one of those “we had a great prior year so let’s finally deploy a bunch of strategies we’ve been working on for years” kind of years. We began with a handful of meaty goals, and I am proud to share that we crushed most of them. For those we did not crush we have a strong understanding of what went wrong; they are candidates for future crushing.

While I am not normally content with minor growth, to perform at above prior year during economic softening, industry slowdown, increased costs, and the fear of death still looming, 2022 turned out to be more of a dress rehearsal for an even greater 2023. Alkemist Labs is now more field tested than ever to deliver the World’s Best Plant and Fungi Analysis.

I am a firm believer that ‘fact isn’t brag’ and so here is a short list of a few inroads we made in 2022:

• We entered the legal psychedelic plant and fungi testing arena
• We launched two new service offerings (Heavy metals and Pesticides)
• Stay tuned for more new service offerings
• We launched Alkemist Assured, the industries’ only plant/fungi centric seal of approval
• Stay tuned more for more on that.
• We won four amazing awards
• NBJ Efforts on Behalf of the Industry
• Whole Foods Person of The Year – Quality Activists
• NASC Lasting Impact Award
• AOAC honored Sid for  25 years of service
• Sid, Petra, Anthony, and I spoke at more industry events than any previous year 
• NBJ Summit
• NASC
• Holistic Primary Care Practitioner Channel Forum
• SelectScience
• UNPA “What the Spec”
• GRMA Summit
• Legal, Regulatory, and Compliance Forum of Dietary Supplements
• NACRW
• Naturally Informed
• Eastern Analytical Symposium
• SSW Ingredient Idol
• AHPA Regulatory Congress 
• We were invited to write a new quarterly column called “As The Lab Turns” in the Natural Products Insider

New for 2023 you can expect the launch of more service offerings. Early in the year we will offer both Residual solvent and Microbial analysis. This target comes directly from client feedback that since we already test the ID and Potency of their botanicals it would be helpful if we can do the rest since the samples are already there. Alkemist as a full-service plant and fungi lab has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

I have been evangelical about transparency for the last eight years, which will be news to no one. In 2022 we introduced Alkemist Assured, a two-tiered program to help ingredient suppliers and finished product companies share their test results as a demonstration of quality. It was born to get in front of consumers and show them the quality of your products like never before. However, to our surprise, some of the industry’s biggest contract manufacturers and ingredient suppliers want the Alkemist Assured logo on their products too, so it is now being deployed from seed to shelf. To take that to the next level, we are pleased to share in an early release that Alkemist Labs will soon be ISO 17065 accredited, expanding the Alkemist Assured seal into an official certification. Stay tuned for more details on that soon.

Clearly it was a very busy year for us, and especially satisfying to see so many long-term goals come to fruition as we celebrated our 25th anniversary. We’ve come a long way, baby! 

*best-year-in-history is defined as a year where we met many of our goals including sales, innovation and increased service.