While the lab sometimes deals with silk and other material, outerwear and bedding products like pillows and comforters that are filled with down and feathers are IDFL's specialty. The composition tests can determine not just the percentage of down versus feathers, but also whether the material is from a goose, duck or land fowl. "White down" can be examined to ensure the proper percentage of white material exists. Other tests check for odor and the presence of organic matter or dust — "anything that might affect customer value to the product," Lieber Jr. said.

Rarely is bad stuff found in the down. "The Chinese plants are the cleanest in the world," Lieber Jr. said. And the elder Lieber says the producers have become so sophisticated that they can provide manufacturers stuff to meet exact specifications, such as, say, 82 percent down and 18 percent feathers.

That wasn't always the case.

"The problem originally was, because it's a hidden item, it was misrepresented in the early days," Lieber Sr. said. "In the '70s, stuff was sold as goose down, and we found kapok and chicken feathers in it. That's what brought it all about."

Lieber Sr. worked for the state then as director of the Utah Department of Agriculture since 1952. Problems with mattresses pulled from dumps, reworked with new stuffing and covers and sold as new were ongoing. Regulations were set up to protect consumers, and Lieber developed the methodology for testing. The idea of an independent lab was hatched, and the industry tried to goose Lieber into starting one.

"The industry was saying, 'Why don't you open a laboratory? We need a reliable laboratory.' But I wasn't interested in the beginning. I knew the industry. They were trying to pull fast ones," he said.

"In the early days, there wasn't a lot of testing being done," said Claudia Gale, administrator of the bedding, upholstered furniture and quilted clothing program for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food. "Manufacturers would send people their product and say, 'Test it for me and come back with a certain result. Tell me it was 75 or 80 percent down.'

"It wasn't very truthful. Wilf saw a need for some honesty and integrity in the business."

Lieber Sr. eventually flew the state government coop and with wife Mary Jean Lieber founded IDFL as an independent lab in 1978. As the only employees, their flying start featured tests on about 500 samples the first year. Their testing methods became industry standards, and the lab gained an international reputation for integrity. Rarely ruffled, Lieber Sr. has often been an expert witness in court cases about down and feather items.

"We can defend anything we do in court," he said. "I've said that if we cannot defend it in court, it doesn't mean anything. It's important for us."

A key, according to Gale, is IDFL's establishment of test methods that could be repeated consistently. "You know that if IDFL gives someone a test result, they can bank on it," she said.