Carotenoids Pigments market insights covers the food and beverage industry that uses Carotenoids Pigments all over the world. The market is expected to reach a market valuation of near by $539 million by 2022 and grow at a CAGR of 5.

Fueling Global Growth Carotenoid Pigments’ Rising Demand in Europe and USA Drives a US$ 539 Million Market by 2022

Whole Foods has just released ... behavior to the table in predicting food trends for 2024. “Our annual food trends predictions list is a way for us to pull back the curtain for customers ...

Whole Foods forecasts the top food trends for 2024

A new class of weight-loss drugs has rattled global equity markets, sending shares of everything from food and beverage companies ... Metal Packaging SA and Crown Holdings Inc. “It might ...

Ozempic threatens profits at food and beverage makers worldwide

A new class of weight-loss drugs has rattled global stock markets, sending shares of everything from food and beverage companies ... Metal Packaging and Crown Holdings. “It might represent ...

Weight-loss drugs threaten profits at food and beverage makers worldwide

MINNEAPOLIS — Twelve food and beverage brands were selected to participate in the fifth Target Forward Founders accelerator program, described as “an immersive 10-week program” providing ...

Twelve food and beverage brands join Target accelerator

Food Empire Holdings is exploring a stock-market listing in Hong Kong to give the Singapore snacks and drinks business broader ... half results in August in US dollars, showing the business ...

Singapore’s Food Empire Holdings explores dual listing in Hong Kong

Nutricom Food and Beverages Limited – a local beverage producing company – has dismissed as false assertions that its Kombucha drink contains higher alcoholic content than the company ...

Nutricom Food & Beverages clarifies on Kombucha’s alcohol content

Get the most recent info and news about US Foods Holding on HackerNoon, where 10k+ technologists publish stories for 4M+ monthly readers.

US Foods Holding Corp., through its subsidiary, US Foods, Inc., markets and distributes fresh, frozen, and dry food and non-food products to foodservice customers in the United States. The company's customers include independently owned single and multi-unit restaurants, regional concepts, national restaurant chains, hospitals, nursing homes, hotels and motels, country clubs, government and military organizations, colleges and universities, and retail locations. As of July 06, 2022, it operated 70 broadline facilities; and 80 cash and carry locations. The company was formerly known as USF Holding Corp. and changed its name to US Foods Holding Corp. in February 2016. US Foods Holding Corp. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois.

US Foods Holding

Have you ever had to do something simply because it’s the way it’s always been done? Did doing that thing help you or hurt you? Jason Fried, CEO of Basecamp, about a common assumption that causes interdependencies and slows teams down product development teams. wrote “If your company makes an iOS app and an Android app, and the iOS team can’t release a new feature until the Android team has finished their version, that’s crazy. That’s creating artificial dependencies that prevent separate teams working on separate things from each moving at their own pace. When you lock two teams together, you slow everyone down and create a whole host of frustrations.” By questioning the assumptions that the iOS and Android apps needed to be the same, Jason enabled his team to work faster and produce a better product: “You may say the iOS and Android apps must be the same. Different platforms but identical products, right? But why? That’s an artificial rule. If one releases a week or two or even three before the other, who cares? It’ll be fine. In fact, it’ll probably be better. Each platform can evolve on its own at its own pace — neither waiting for the other. None behind the other — each independent of one another.” He referred to this counterproductive assumption as an “ .” An artificial rule is a self-imposed process, deadline, or requirement that doesn’t actually contribute to the desired end goal that the rule was adopted in order to achieve. Rather, the rule adds complexity and slows things down. artificial rule Some artificial rules get adopted because they help. But many get adopted for less than productive reasons, such as: “It’s what we’ve always done” “Everyone else is doing it” Insecurity, lack of trust, or fear of uncertainty Artificial rules create problems because we’re prone to work to abide by the rule rather than to achieve the end result that the rule was put in place in order to achieve and there are often costs associated with abiding by the rule. As a result, in abiding by the rule, we miss our ultimate objective. The rule gets in the way of our success. In this article, I share six common artificial rules in life and work, how you can identify your own, and how you can break them. 1. “Respond as quickly as possible” Tools like Slack, GChat, and email make it easy to communicate with your team. Sometimes, they make it too easy. For example, it’s easy for someone to email you at 11am on a Sunday while you’re out hiking, taking a break from it all. When someone asks for something, we feel obligated to give it to them. That’s natural. However, I’ve found that often times, deadlines are self-imposed. There’s no real justification for the deadline. Rather, we create them, and this only adds constraints and . stress Instead of abiding by the artificial rule that you need to respond to everything as fast as you can, try one of the these solutions: Send a quick reply saying when you can respond Ask when your colleague needs a response Manage expectations about your response times before someone asks 2. “Work 9 to 5, Monday to Friday” Setting a 9 to 5, Monday to Friday schedule ensures that you’re in your desk at those times. Some people need that structure. The 9 to 5, Monday to Friday rule is one that works for a lot of people. It worked particularly well when we needed to be in the same physical location at the same time in order to collaborate. But this rule also creates inefficiencies. Sometimes you’re tired on Wednesday at 3pm and the rest of the day is surely going to be a waste of time, or the quality of your work will suffer. Other times, you’re energized at 7pm on a Sunday. I get my best work done in the mornings. Before I start getting emails. Sometimes before the sun even comes up. Always keep the end goal — doing great work — in mind. If your work schedule doesn’t help you achieve that goal, change your rules. 3. “Maintain a content calendar” A content calendar gets your team aligned on what needs to get done and when. It gives managers a sense of certainty in an otherwise uncertain process. The problem is, content calendars optimize for perhaps the least important aspect of content marketing: the timing that you publish. you publish doesn’t really matter. you publish really matters. When What The most significant and sustained results come from producing high quality content that provides value to your audience now and for the foreseeable future. The quality of the content that you publish > The quantity of the content that you publish > The time at which you publish If you can publish high quality content at whatever arbitrary publishing schedule you’ve set, that’s great. But don’t let the publishing schedule hinder your ability to do what actually gets results. Give yourself or your team the time they need to identify topics that your audience about and to produce content that truly provides value. Have trust in that process, despite the uncertainty. cares 4. “Grow bigger and faster” Hypergrowth has become the norm. It’s what’s expected of us. It’s what Elon Musk and all the other entrepreneurs we read about in Techcrunch are doing. But, in fact, moving fast can cause you to break things, and not everyone wants to or needs to break things. Breaking things is risky and can prevent you from achieving your goals. Furthermore, making lots of money is usually a means to some end goal. That end goal may be to travel the world, get married and have a family, or simply to be happy and healthy everyday. Often times, these end goals can be achieved through other means. 5. “Wake up early” Waking up early is all the rage these days . Many people, myself included, can tell you about the great results they’ve achieved from establishing a morning routine. However, it’s important to question whether what works for other people works for you. (I even wrote about earlier in this article!) Some people have more energy and focus at night. I don’t see any problem with staying up late and waking up late if that’s what works for you. After all, the goal is to be healthy and productive, not just to wake up at a certain time. 6. “Maintain the perfect diet” It would be nice if we could all make up our minds about something and stick to it no matter how hard it is. We want to think we’re capable of anything. But the reality is, we all have our weaknesses. Acknowledging these weaknesses can help you put yourself in positions where your weaknesses are minimized and your strengths are maximized. For most people, striving to maintain the “perfect” diet is unachievable, or, at the least, unsustainable. Perfection is the enemy of good in this case. Rather than strive for perfection, I . start small and optimize for sustainability I eat plenty of “cheat meals” on the weekends. I eat several foods that aren’t perfectly healthy, but aren’t all that unhealthy either. I eat them because they taste good, and incorporating them into my diet makes my diet far less miserable, and therefore, far more sustainable. Lessons learned Question whether the rules in your life are artificial or beneficial Focus on achieving outcomes as opposed to simply abiding by rules Do what actually works for you, not just what works for others Trust yourself and your team If you enjoyed this story, please click the ❤ button below. It helps others find it and encourages me to write more like it.

The Artificial Rules That Are Holding You Back

223 Stories To Learn About Science

The Romance of Modern Mechanism by Archibald Williams is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . CHAPTER XXIV here AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY PLOUGHS — DRILLS AND SEEDERS — REAPING MACHINES — THRESHING MACHINES — PETROL-DRIVEN FIELD MACHINERY— ELECTRICAL FARMING MACHINERY Agriculture is at once the oldest and most important of all national industries. Man being a graminivorous animal—witness his molar, or grinding, "double" teeth—has, since the earliest times, been obliged to observe the seasons, planting his crops when the ground is moist, and reaping them when the weather is warm and dry. Apart from the nomad races of the deserts and steppes, who find their chief subsistence in the products of the date-palm and of their flocks and herds, all nations cultivate a large portion of the country which they inhabit. Ancient monuments, the oldest inscriptions and writings, bear witness to the prime importance of the plough and reaping-hook; and it may be reasonably assumed that the progress of civilisation is proved by the increased use of cereal foods, and better methods of garnering and preparing them. For thousands of years the sickle, which Greek and Roman artists placed in the hand of their Goddess of the Harvest, and the rude plough, consisting of, perhaps, only a crooked bough with a pointed end, were practically the only implements known to the husbandman besides his spade and mattock. Where labour is abundant and each householder has time to cultivate the little plot which suffices for the maintenance of his own family, and while there is little inducement to take part in other than agricultural industries—tedious and time-wasting methods have held their own. But in highly civilised communities carrying on manufactures of all sorts it is difficult for the farmer to secure an abundance of human help, and yet it is recognised that a speedy preparation and sowing of the land, and a prompt gathering and threshing of the harvest, is all in favour of producing a successful and well-conditioned crop. In England, eighty years ago, three men lived in the country for every one who lived in the town. Now the proportion has been reversed; and that not in the British Isles alone. The world does not mean to starve; but civilisation demands that as few people as possible should be devoted to procuring the "staff of life" for both man and beast. We should reasonably expect, therefore, that the immense advance made in mechanical science during the last century should have left a deep mark on agricultural appliances. Such an expectation is more than justified; for are there not many among us who have seen the sickle and the flail at work where now the "self-binder" and threshing machine perform the same duties in a fraction of the time formerly required? The ploughman, plodding sturdily down the furrow behind his clever team, is indeed still a common sight; but in the tilling season do we not hear the snort of the steam-engine, as its steel rope tears a six-furrow plough through the mellow earth? When the harvest comes we realise even more clearly how largely machinery has supplanted man; while in the processes of separating the grain from its straw the human element plays an even smaller part. It would not be too much to say that, were we to revert next year to the practices of our grandfathers, we should starve in the year following. This chapter will be confined to a consideration of machinery operated by horse, steam, or other power, which falls under four main headings,—ploughs, drills, reapers, and threshers. PLOUGHS The firm of Messrs. John Fowler and Company, of Leeds, is most intimately connected with the introduction of the steam plough and cultivator. Their first type of outfit included one engine only, the traversing of the plough across the field being effected by means of cables passing round a pulley on a low, four-wheeled truck, moved along the opposite edge of the field by ropes dragging on an anchor. Another method was to have the engine stationary at one corner of the field, and an anchor at each of the three other corners, the two at the ends of the furrow being moved for every journey of the plough. In, or about, the year 1865 this arrangement succumbed to the simple and, as it now seems to us, obvious improvement of introducing a second engine to progress vis-à-vis with the first, and do its share of the pulling. The modern eight-furrow steam plough will turn ten acres a day quite easily, at a much lower cost than that of horse labour. For tearing up land after a crop "cultivators" are sometimes used. They have arrowhead-shaped [321]coulters, which cut very deep and bring large quantities of fresh earth to the surface. The ground is now pulverised by harrows of various shapes, according to the nature of the crop to be sown. English farmers generally employ the spike harrow; but Yankee agriculturists make great use of the spring-tooth form, which may best be described as an arrangement of very strong springs much resembling in outline the springs of house bells. The shorter arm is attached to the frame, while the longer and pointed arm tears the earth. DRILLS AND SEEDERS In highly civilised countries the man carrying a basket from which he flings seeds broadcast is a very rare sight indeed. The primitive method may have been effective—a good sower could cover an acre evenly with half a pint of turnip seed—but very slow. We now use a long bin mounted on wheels, which revolves discs inside the bin, furnished with tiny spoons round the periphery to scoop small quantities of seed into tubes terminating in a coulter. The farmer is thus certain of having evenly planted and parallel rows of grain, which in the early spring, when the sprouting begins, make so pleasant an addition to the landscape. The "corn," or maize, crop of the United States is so important that it demands special sowing machinery, which plants single grains at intervals of about eighteen inches. A somewhat similar device is used for planting potatoes. Passing over the weeding machines, which offer no features of particular interest, we come to the REAPING MACHINES, on which a vast amount of ingenuity has been expended. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Royal Agricultural Society of Great Britain offered a prize for the introduction of a really useful machine which should replace the scythe and sickle. Several machines were brought out, but they did not prove practical enough to attract much attention. Cyrus H. McCormick invented in 1831 the reaper, which, with very many improvements added, is to-day employed in all parts of the world. The most noticeable point of this machine was the bar furnished with a row of triangular blades which passed very rapidly to and fro through slots in an equal number of sharp steel points, against which they cut the grain. The to-and-fro action of the cutter-blade was produced by a connecting-rod working on a crank rotated by the wheels carrying the machine. The first McCormick reaper did wonders on a Virginian farm; other inventors were stimulated; and in 1833 there appeared the Hussey reaper, built on somewhat similar lines. For twelve years or so these two machines competed against one another all over the United States; and then McCormick added a raker attachment, which, when sufficient grain had accumulated on the platform, enabled a second man on the machine to sweep it off to be tied up into a sheaf. At the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851, the judges awarded a special medal to the inventor, reporting that the whole expense of the Exhibition would have been well recouped if only the reaper were introduced into England. From France McCormick received the decoration of the Legion of Honour "for having done more for the cause of agriculture than any man then living." It would be reasonable to expect that, after this public recognition, the mechanical reaper would have been immediately valued at its true worth. "Yet no man had more difficulty in introducing his machines than that pioneer inventor of agricultural implements. Farmers everywhere were slow to accept it, and manufacturers were unwilling to undertake its manufacture. Even after the value of the machine had been demonstrated, everyone seemed to fear that it would break down on rocky and uneven fields; and the inventor had to demonstrate in person to the farmers the practicability of the reapers, and then even guarantee them before the money could be obtained. Through all these trying discouragements the persistent inventor passed before he saw any reward for the work that he had spent half a lifetime in perfecting. The ultimate triumph of the inventor may be sufficient reward for his labours and discouragements, but those who would begrudge him the wealth that he subsequently made from his invention should consider some of the difficulties and obstacles he had to overcome in the beginning." [24] In 1858 an attachment was fitted to replace the second passenger on the machine. Four men followed behind to tie up the grain as it was shot off the machine. Inventors tried to abolish the need for these extra hands by means of a self-binding device. A practical method, employing wire, appeared in 1860; but so great was the trouble caused by stray pieces of the wire getting into threshing and other machinery through which the grain subsequently passed that farmers went back to hand work, until the Appleby patent of 1873 replaced wire by twine. Words alone would convey little idea of how the corn is collected and encircled with twine; how the knot is tied by an ingenious shuttle mechanism; and how it is thrown out into a set of arms which collect sufficient sheaves to form a "stook" before it lets them fall. So we would advise our readers to take the next chance of examining a modern self-binder, and to persuade the man in charge to give as lucid an explanation as he can of the way in which things are done. Popular prejudice having once been conquered, the success of the reapers was assured. The year 1870 saw 60,000 in use; by 1885 the output had increased to 250,000; and to-day the manufacture of agricultural labour-saving machines gives employment to over 200,000 people; an equal number being occupied in their transport and sale in all parts of the globe. In California, perhaps more than in any other country, "power" agricultural machinery is seen at its best. Great traction-engines here take the place of human labour to an extraordinary extent. The largest, of 50 h.p. and upwards, "with driving-wheels 60 inches in diameter and flanges of generous width, travel over the uneven surface of the grain fields, crossing ditches and low places, and ascending the sides of steep hills, with as much apparent ease as a locomotive rolls along its steel rails. Such powerful traction-engines, or 'automobiles' as they are commonly called by the American farmers, are capable of dragging behind them sixteen 10-inch ploughs, four 6-foot harrows, and a drill and seeder. The land is thus ploughed, drilled, and seeded all at one time. From fifty to seventy-five acres of virgin soil can thus be ploughed and planted in a single day. When the harvest comes the engines are again brought into service, and the fields that would ordinarily defy the best efforts of an army of workmen are garnered quickly and easily. The giant harvester is hitched to the traction-engine in place of the ploughs and harrows, and cuts, binds, and stacks the golden wheat from seventy-five acres in a single day. The cutters are 26 feet wide, and they make a clear swathe across the field. Some of them thresh, clean, and sack the wheat as fast as it is cut and bound. Other traction-engines follow to gather up the sacked wheat, and whole train-loads of it thus move across the field to the granaries or railways of the seaboard or interior." For "dead ripe" crops the "header" is often used in California. Instead of being pulled it is by mules, and merely cuts off the heads, leaving the straw to be trampled down by the animals since it has no value. Swathes as wide as 50 feet are thus treated, the grain being threshed out while the machine moves. pushed One of the most beautiful, and at the same time useful, crops in the world is that of maize, which feeds not only vast numbers of human beings, but also countless flocks and herds, the latter eating the green stalks as well as the ripened grain. The United States alone produced no less than 2,523,648,312 bushels of this cereal in 1902, as against 987,000,000 bushels of wheat, and 670,000,000 bushels of barley. Now, maize has a very tough stalk, often 10 feet high and an inch thick, which cannot be cut with the ease of wheat or barley. So a special machine has been devised to handle it. The row of corn is picked up, if fallen, by chains furnished with projecting spikes working at an angle to the perpendicular, so as to lift and simultaneously pull back the stalks, which pass into a horizontal V-shaped frame. This has a broad opening in front, but narrows towards its rear end, where stationary sickles fixed on either side give the stalk a drawing cut before it reaches the single knife moving to right and left in the angle of the V, which severs the stalk completely. The McCormick machine gathers the corn in vertical bundles, and ties them up ready for the "shockers." THRESHING MACHINES In principle these are simple enough. The straw and grain is fed into a slot and pulled down between a toothed rotating drum and a fixed toothed concave. These tear out the grain from the ear. The former falls into the hopper of a winnowing and riddling machine, which clears it from dust and husks, and allows it to pass to a hopper. An endless chain of buckets carries it to the delivery bins, holding just one sackful each, which when full discharge the grain through spouts into the receptacles waiting below their mouths. An automatic counter records the number of sackfuls of corn that have been discharged, so that dishonesty on the part of employés becomes practically an impossibility. While the grain is thus treated, oscillating rakes have arranged the straw and shaken it out behind in a form convenient for binding, and the chaff has passed to its proper heap, to be used as fuel for the engine or as food for cattle. PETROL-DRIVEN FIELD MACHINERY On water, rail, and road the petrol engine has entered into rivalry with steam—very successfully too. And now it bids fair to challenge both steam-engine and horse as the motive power for agricultural operations. Probably the best-known English petrol-driven farmer's help is that made by Mr. Dan Albone, of Biggleswade, who in past times did much to introduce the safety bicycle to the public. The "Ivel" motor is not beautiful to look upon; its sides are slab, its outlines rather suggestive of an inverted punt. But it is a willing and powerful worker; requires no feeding in the early hours of the morning; no careful brush down after the day's work; no halts to ease wearied muscles. In one tank is petrol, in another lubricating oil, in a third water to keep the cylinders cool. A double-cylinder motor of 18 h.p. transmits its energy through a large clutch and train of cogs to the road wheels, made extra wide and well corrugated so that they shall not sink into soft ground or slip on hard. There is a broad pulley-wheel peeping out from one side of the machine, which is ready to drive chaff-cutters or threshers, pump, grind corn, or turn a dynamo at a moment's notice. Hitch the "Ivel" on to a couple of reapers or a three-furrow plough, and it soon shows its superiority to "man's friend." Here are some records:— We may quote a paragraph from the pen of "Home Counties," a well-known and perspicacious writer on agricultural topics. "It is because motor-farming is likely to result in a more thorough cultivation of the land and a more skilful and more enlightened practice of agriculture, and not in a further extension of those deplorable land-scratching and acre-grasping methods of which so many pitiful examples may be seen on our clay soils, that its beginnings are being sympathetically watched by many people who have the best interests of the rural districts and the prosperity of agriculture at heart." [25] Will our farmers give the same welcome to the agricultural motor that was formerly accorded to the mechanical reaper? Prophecy is risky, but if, before a decade has elapsed, the horse has not been largely replaced by petrol on large farms and light land, the writer of these lines will be much surprised. ELECTRICAL FARMING MACHINERY In France, Germany, Austria, and the United States the electric motor has been turned to agricultural uses. Where water-power is available it is peculiarly suitable for stationary work, such as threshing, chaff-cutting, root-slicing, grinding, etc. The current can be easily distributed all over a large farm and harnessed to portable motors. Even ploughing has been done with electricity: the energy being derived either from a steam-engine placed near by, or from an overhead supply passing to the plough through trolley arms similar to those used on electric trams. The great advances made recently in electrical power transmission, and in the efficiency of the electric motor, bring the day in sight when on large properties the fields will be girt about by cables and poles as permanent fixtures. All the usual agricultural operations of ploughing, drilling, and reaping will then be independent of horses, or of steam-engines panting laboriously on the headlands. In fact, the experiment has been tried with success in the United States. Whichever way we look, Giant Steam is bowing before a superior power. FOOTNOTES: 24. Cassier's Magazine. The World's Work, vol. iii. 499. 25. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Archibald Williams (2014). The Romance of Modern Mechanism. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/46094/pg46094-images.html. This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY

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This story was originally published by by . ProPublica Ryan Gabrielson One morning in September 2017, Judge Christopher Plourd opened an unusual hearing at the Imperial County Superior Courthouse, a half-hour north of the California-Mexico border. It involved three illegal drug possession cases that were unrelated to one another. Each of the cases had relied on the results of chemical field test kits used by corrections officers at nearby state prisons. The kits indicated crumbs and shreds of paper that guards found on the inmates contained heroin and amphetamine. But a state forensic laboratory later analyzed the debris utilizing a far more reliable test and found no trace of illegal drugs. The defendants were factually innocent. Rather than simply close the cases, defense attorneys asked the court to determine whether the NIK Public Safety brand field tests used in California’s prisons were too unreliable to show to grand jurors. In effect, they put on trial the evidence most commonly used to secure convictions in drug cases in the U.S. Plourd ruled in early 2018 that the test kit “does not meet a scientific admissibility standard” and therefore “does not support the grand jury indictment.” In other words, the tests were guilty. The Imperial County cases are believed to be the first time a judge blocked field tests from contributing to indictments. In the years since, defendants and inmates in multiple states have scored additional legal victories against agencies using the kits and the companies selling them. “For years, these tests have had this unjustified scientific veneer,” said Des Walsh, founder of the Roadside Drug Test Innocence Alliance, which advocates for the use of more accurate testing technology. “Finally, we believe the tide is turning with this dawning awareness of the unacceptably high rate of false positives.” In a , ProPublica documented law enforcement’s widespread use of field tests to make arrests and secure convictions despite serious flaws. No government agency regulates their use. 2016 series of stories The officers who perform the tests to make arrests on the street often have little or no training in their use. Since then, the new court rulings have contributed to a growing movement to change the way drug cases are prosecuted in America. Courts across the country have long known that field tests are error prone and require forensic laboratories to confirm the results for jury trials. However, nearly all drug convictions in the U.S. come by plea deals during initial hearings, where chemical kits are the primary evidence of guilt. Courts have overturned 131 drug convictions in the past 10 years after laboratory analysis determined the alleged drugs were legal substances, according to a database maintained by the National Registry of Exonerations. A large majority of those wrongful convictions originated in Harris County, Texas, where the crime lab analyzed its backlog of suspected drugs from closed cases and discovered the evidence in hundreds of convictions did not contain drugs. The defendants in those cases had pleaded guilty at preliminary hearings. The tests are small plastic pouches holding vials of chemicals. They’re cheap, roughly $2 apiece, and easy to use. Officers open the pouch and add the substance to be tested. The tests are designed to produce specific colors when mixed with drugs like heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine. But dozens of items, including foods and household cleaners, trigger similar reactions. During the Imperial County hearing, an executive at the Safariland Group, the nation’s largest field test manufacturer, testified the company keeps a list of more than 50 legal substances that cause positive results. Court records show chocolate sometimes turns the liquid a similar shade of green as heroin in the NIK kits. Safariland Group did not respond to a request for comment. More evidence of the tests’ inaccuracy came in October 2021, when former inmates filed a class-action lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Correction. The prisons used test kits on all incoming mail, including letters from attorneys. When correspondence tested positive, inmates were sometimes put in solitary confinement and lost eligibility for parole. The lawsuit alleged that the prison system’s use of field tests violated the inmates’ right to due process. Court records show that between August 2019 and August 2020, lab analysis found that 38% of the inmate mail that tested positive did not contain the alleged drug. Shortly after the inmates filed their lawsuit, Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Brian David ordered the Correction Department to immediately stop using the chemical kits until the litigation was finished. In the order, David characterized the NARK II brand kits used in Massachusetts’ prisons as “arbitrary and unlawful guesswork.” The inmates are also suing Sirchie Acquisition Co., manufacturer of the NARK II kits, and Premier Biotech, a retailer that sells them, in federal court for negligence, alleging the companies misrepresented the kits’ risk of false positives and provided inaccurate instructions to the state prisons. In September, a federal judge ruled that field test sellers can potentially be held liable for harm caused by erroneous results. Both of the lawsuits are ongoing. Sirchie did not respond to ProPublica’s request for comment. Sirchie, Premier Biotech and the Massachusetts Correction Department have denied the inmates’ claims in court records. Compounding field tests’ inherent flaws, police officers and prison guards rarely understand how the kits work, according to court records and interviews. During the hearing in Imperial County, multiple guards testified about the training they received on the field tests and how they described the results to grand jurors. David Eustaquio, an officer with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told the court he had used the chemical kits more than 200 times during his career, according to transcripts. He said he’d never had to explain the results beyond saying the color change meant the test was positive for an illegal drug. “Do you know what the accuracy rate is for these NIK tests?” Kelly Jafine, an Imperial County deputy public defender, asked Eustaquio. “No, I do not,” he said. Jafine then asked if the prison had taught him about false positive results during training on the chemical kits. “No,” Eustaquio answered, “I was not.” Photo by on Max Fleischmann Unsplash

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