diff --git a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/ExperimentProcessor.java b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/ExperimentProcessor.java
index a5fedaf84..34030b795 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/ExperimentProcessor.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/ExperimentProcessor.java
@@ -525,7 +525,7 @@ private List<Trait> verifyTraits(UUID programId, List<Column<?>> phenotypeCols,
                                                          .map(TraitEntity::getObservationVariableName)
                                                          .collect(Collectors.toSet());
             List<String> differences = varNames.stream()
-                                               .filter(var -> !returnedVarNames.contains(var))
+                                               .filter(var -> !Utilities.containsCaseInsensitive(var, returnedVarNames))
                                                .collect(Collectors.toList());
             //TODO convert this to a ValidationError
             throw new HttpStatusException(HttpStatus.UNPROCESSABLE_ENTITY,
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/services/ExperimentValidateService.java b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/services/ExperimentValidateService.java
index d12ff2509..af143863b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/services/ExperimentValidateService.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/brapps/importer/services/processors/experiment/services/ExperimentValidateService.java
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 import org.breedinginsight.model.Trait;
 import org.breedinginsight.services.OntologyService;
 import org.breedinginsight.services.exceptions.DoesNotExistException;
+import org.breedinginsight.utilities.Utilities;
 import tech.tablesaw.columns.Column;
 
 import javax.inject.Inject;
@@ -78,7 +79,7 @@ public List<Trait> verifyTraits(UUID programId, DynamicColumnParseResult cols) {
                     .map(TraitEntity::getObservationVariableName)
                     .collect(Collectors.toSet());
             List<String> differences = varNames.stream()
-                    .filter(var -> !returnedVarNames.contains(var))
+                    .filter(var -> !Utilities.containsCaseInsensitive(var, returnedVarNames))
                     .collect(Collectors.toList());
             //TODO convert this to a ValidationError
             throw new HttpStatusException(HttpStatus.UNPROCESSABLE_ENTITY,
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/utilities/Utilities.java b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/utilities/Utilities.java
index 92b46623e..20f3254d6 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/utilities/Utilities.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/breedinginsight/utilities/Utilities.java
@@ -27,10 +27,7 @@
 import java.lang.reflect.Field;
 import java.sql.ResultSet;
 import java.sql.Statement;
-import java.util.ArrayList;
-import java.util.List;
-import java.util.Optional;
-import java.util.UUID;
+import java.util.*;
 import java.util.function.Function;
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
@@ -48,10 +45,10 @@ public static <T> Optional<T> findInList(List<T> checkList, T objectToCheck, Fun
      * Case insensitive search for string in string list
      *
      * @param target - string to search for
-     * @param list - list of strings to search in
+     * @param list - collection of strings to search in
      * @return true if case insensitive match, false otherwise
      */
-    public static boolean containsCaseInsensitive(String target, List<String> list){
+    public static boolean containsCaseInsensitive(String target, Collection<String> list){
         return list.stream().anyMatch(x -> x.equalsIgnoreCase(target));
     }