Can I put a Scoville number on my label, and how do I get a sauce tested?

You can print a Scoville number on your label if it describes your sauce, which means a laboratory measured the sauce itself, not the peppers that went into it. A sauce reads far below its peppers because the pepper is only part of the bottle: the USDA's commercial specification puts a habanero hot sauce at 5,000 to 8,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), while habaneros themselves run 200,000 to 300,000 [1][2]. To get a number, send a sample to a lab for an HPLC capsaicinoid test under ASTA Method 21.3 or AOAC 995.03 [1][3]. This page shows the dilution math, what to ask a lab for, other heat scales, and the evidence a "hottest" claim needs.

Why a sauce reads far below its peppers

Heat in a sauce is close to a weighted average of the heat of everything in it. Vinegar, water, salt, garlic, fruit and carrot carry no capsaicinoids, so every gram of them dilutes the peppers.

The estimate

Estimated sauce SHU = (pepper share by weight) × (pepper SHU), added up for each pepper in the recipe.

The pepper shares are made up to show the arithmetic; they are not recipes. Two lessons come out of the table. A sauce that uses a lot of habanero can be far hotter than the commercial benchmark, and a sauce with "habanero" on the label may contain only a few percent. And no recipe built only from whole peppers gets near the pepper's own number. Sauces that test near a million SHU exist; a review cites one commercial sauce measured at 991,700 SHU [3]. Reaching that from whole peppers alone would take a sauce that is more than half record-heat Reapers, so readings that high usually point to added capsaicin extract, a choice covered on making a sauce milder or hotter.

Why the estimate is only an estimate

• The peppers vary. A published range is wide, and your lot can sit anywhere in it or outside it. The reasons are on why the same recipe comes out hotter or milder.
• Cooking changes it. Boiling lowered capsaicinoids by 1.1 to 28.1 percent in one study, while reduction concentrates what remains [4].
• Dried peppers count differently. A dried pod's heat per gram is far higher than the fresh pod's because the water is gone. Use the heat figure that matches the form you weigh.

An estimate is useful for formulating. It is not good enough to print as a number.

Getting a sauce tested

A capsaicinoid test separates and measures the individual compounds by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), then converts them to SHU with standard heat factors [5]. The USDA's hot sauce specification names three acceptable methods for pungency: AOAC 995.03, ASTA 21.3, or gas chromatography [1]. One commercial lab, for example, lists a capsaicinoid and SHU determination by extraction and HPLC under ASTA 21.3 [6]. Ask any food testing lab whether it runs the test in house or sends it out.

What to ask the lab for

Use this as a checklist when you request a quote.

1. The method by name. ASTA 21.3 or AOAC 995.03. ASTA's method was revised in 2026; ask which version the lab runs, because a 2026 result is about 6 percent lower than the same sample under the 2004 method (SHU 2004 equals SHU 2026 divided by 0.9431) [5].
2. Individual compounds as well as the total. Ask for capsaicin, dihydrocapsaicin and nordihydrocapsaicin in ppm, plus total SHU [5].
3. The conversion used. Some labs and specifications convert at about 15 SHU per ppm, others at 16 [3][1]. The difference is about 7 percent on paper; the conversion is explained on the Scoville scale and how heat is measured.
4. How they prepare a sauce sample. ASTA's method is written for peppers and oleoresins [5]. A sauce needs its own extraction; one university teaching method uses 10 to 15 g of sauce in about 50 mL of ethanol at a low boil for 30 minutes [7]. Ask what weight or volume to send and how to pack it.
5. Replicates and precision. Ask how many times they run the sample and what spread to expect. ASTA's own lab-to-lab relative standard deviations run about 4.5 to 14.8 percent depending on the material [5].
6. Price and turnaround, in writing and dated. Current prices were not verified for this page; compare quotes, and see food testing labs for what other tests usually cost and how to find an accredited lab.

Sending a sample that represents the batch

• Take the sample from a fully blended batch, after cooking and any straining, in its finished form.
• Fill two containers from the same batch: send one, keep one sealed and labeled as a retained sample.
• Label both with the product, batch or lot code and date. Lot codes are covered on best-by dates and lot codes.
• Test more than one batch before you print a number, because one batch tells you about one batch.

Printing a heat level: three ways that hold up

A measured range

If you have tested several batches, print a range that covers them with room to spare, for example "about 8,000 to 12,000 SHU." A range is more honest than a single figure, given batch variation and lab precision of around a tenth [5]. Keep the lab reports on file with your batch records.

A pungency class

The Crapnell and Banks review gives five classes: non-pungent (0 to 700 SHU), mildly pungent (700 to 3,000), moderately pungent (3,000 to 25,000), highly pungent (25,000 to 80,000) and very highly pungent (above 80,000) [3]. A class is easy for a buyer to read and stays true across normal batch variation. Even here, a lab result is the safe basis for choosing the class.

A brand heat scale

Some brands use their own scale: a row of peppers, flames, or a 1 to 10 number, defined against the brand's other sauces. This needs no lab number, and it is still a statement on the label, so keep it consistent and tie it to something you can show, such as your own tasting panel results against a fixed reference sauce. A scale works best when the brand explains it in one line ("5 of 10: hotter than our jalapeño sauce, milder than our habanero").

Avoid printing the pepper's range as if it were the sauce's. "Made with habaneros (200,000 to 300,000 SHU)" invites the buyer to read the sauce as that hot, when the sauce may be one fortieth of it.

The evidence a "hottest" claim needs

Superlatives and comparisons are claims about your product, and any statement on a label should be truthful and not misleading. The kinds of claims, and what supports each, are covered on claims on the label. For heat claims specifically:

Note the pepper claim carefully. "Made with Carolina Reapers" is a statement about an ingredient and needs the supplier's word on the variety. "As hot as a Carolina Reaper" is a statement about the sauce and will almost never be true.

From the heat line to the whole label

A heat rating is optional, and it sits alongside the required elements: the statement of identity, net quantity, ingredient list, allergens, and the name and place of business. Those, with the regulation behind each, are on what a hot sauce label must say. To lay out the label with type size and placement checks, use the label builder.

References

1. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Commercial Item Description A-A-20097G, "Hot Sauce," July 12, 2019. https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/AA20097GHotSauce.pdf
2. University of Arizona Cooperative Extension (Jeff Schalau), "Growing Peppers and Chiles," Backyard Gardener #174, March 9, 2024. https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/attachment/PeppersChiles.pdf
3. Crapnell, R.D. and Banks, C.E., Royal Society of Chemistry, *Analyst*, "Electroanalytical overview: the pungency of chile and chilli products determined via the sensing of capsaicinoids," March 2021. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2021/an/d1an00086a
4. Ornelas-Paz, J.J. et al., *Food Chemistry* 119(4):1619-1625, "Effect of cooking on the capsaicinoids and phenolics contents of Mexican peppers," 2010 (AGRIS record). https://agris.fao.org/search/en/records/65de34114c5aef494fdafd0c
5. American Spice Trade Association, ASTA Analytical Method 21.3, "Pungency of Capsicums and Their Oleoresins (HPLC Method, Preferred)," revised April 2026. https://astaspice.org/safe-view/2424690
6. Analytice, "Determination of capsaicinoids, capsaicin content and calculation of the SHU (Scoville index)," laboratory service listing, accessed October 2026. https://www.analytice.com/en/catalogue/determination-of-capsaicinoids-capsaicin-content-and-calculation-of-the-shu-scoville-index-16904-2/
7. Truman State University Chemistry, "How Hot is Your Sauce? Determination of Capsaicinoids in Hot Pepper Sauces using HPLC," laboratory handout, last modified October 6, 2006. https://chemlab.truman.edu/files/2015/07/How-Hot-is-Your-Sauce.pdf