Cbd oil quality control
We've updated our Privacy Policy to make it clearer how we use your personal data. We use cookies to provide you with a better experience, read our Cookie Policy. Growing adoption of cannabis in several medical fields such as cancer, mental disorders and chronic pain is expected to drive revenue growth in the near future. With this change in focus from recreational to medicinal, the legalisation of cannabis is also driving the need to ensure quality control and standardized testing.
CBD Oil Quality Control – How to Pick the Right CBD Oil?
With debates over the legalization of cannabis and cannabis-derived products raging all over the world, it is time for the cannabis industry to start defining testing standards. The industry needs to take its responsibility to its consumers seriously by providing them with a consistent, quality product that carries the reassurance of standardized methods of testing. This article will discuss why cannabis quality control is important how it may be implemented.
The cannabis, hemp, and cannabidiol CBD marketplace is constantly evolving as an increasing number of countries begin to have less stringent views on the legalization of cannabis and cannabis-derived products. It is imperative that the skills and knowledge of analytical testing evolve simultaneously with the rest of the industry to ensure the quality and safety of the end products.
I have spoken with many people across the industry—growers, extractors, and consumers—and it is evident that awareness of and desire for testing have grown significantly. There is, however, a lot of confusion about where to begin, what technologies are suitable, and what purposes the results can serve—and whether the results can even be trusted. Testing falls into two main categories: internal quality control and certification for regulatory compliance.
Any testing for regulatory purposes should be conducted independently to avoid potential conflicts of interest, and the competence of the facility performing the test should be independently verified, for example, by ISO certification.
Although the equipment can meet the analytical requirements of sensitivity and selectivity for the compounds of interest, without independent verification of other factors—such as the validation of methods being used, the calibration of support equipment, and the training and competence of the operators—the results generated cannot be used for legal certification. I would advise anybody sending samples out to testing laboratories to find out what independent certification of competency they hold.
Although external verified testing laboratories are crucial in the prevention of potential conflicts of interest and the lack of credibility self-certification can bring, in-house quality testing can still bring many benefits. Growers can use in-house testing to monitor plant development, and CBD oil manufacturers can use it to verify the safety and quality of raw materials. It can be a lengthy and costly process to use external labs.
Unfortunately, this results in many companies either not bothering to test or at best facing serious delays to their workflows. This can lead to inconsistent and at worst unsafe products. Analytical instrumentation that was previously thought to require laboratory experience and a deep understanding of analytical chemistry, is now being used in cannabis testing after relatively little training.
There are technologies and instrumentation available that are easy to use, cost effective, and adapted for users with minimal experience. Gas chromatography, for example, is a widely used analytical tool for cannabis testing. The technique enables potency testing, terpene profiling, pesticide screening, and residual solvent analysis.
All these analyses can significantly benefit the cannabis industry. Cannabis and cannabis products may be subjected to a wide range of tests. Some tests screen for harmful chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, or residual solvents used in extraction processes; other tests detect microbes such as molds and harmful bacteria; yet other tests determine the levels of terpenes for flavor profiling.
This is important in the recreational and medicinal cannabis markets to ensure that consumers are aware of the potential dose they are consuming. For the CBD market, it is important as many countries will deem any product with more than 0. We will now talk through some of the most common technologies used to analyze cannabis and hemp samples for potency. Liquid chromatography uses a liquid solvent as a mobile phase to carry compounds through an analytical column.
As the compounds pass though the analytical column, they are separated into individual compounds. Then these compounds are detected as they exit the column. For potency testing, a UV detector is the most common. Liquid chromatography is the most commonly used technique in laboratories for potency testing. The ability to see both acidic and neutral cannabinoids without the need for additional sample preparation combined with the excellent limits of detection make liquid chromatography an ideal choice for commercial testing laboratories.
Gas chromatography operates in a similar fashion to liquid chromatography but uses gas as a mobile phase rather than liquid. Most commonly, a flame ionization detector FID is used for potency testing. Gas chromatographs operate at much higher temperatures than liquid chromatographs, and the high temperatures can cause the acidic cannabinoids to decarboxylate to the neutral versions.
This is not a problem if the user is interested in total cannabinoid values, but if the user wishes to see both acidic and neutral versions, an additional derivatization must take place during the sample preparation. An FID gas chromatograph offers the advantage that the same instrument can also be used for terpene analysis and residual solvent testing. This flexibility makes it an ideal choice for in-house quality testing.
Many people become aware of chromatography when they see thin-layer chromatography demonstrated in a science class. They usually see the technique used to separate a dot of ink into individual colors on a piece of filter paper. For cannabinoid testing, the same principal applies. An extracted sample is placed onto a chromatographic plate which is then partially placed into a solvent.
Once the separation is complete, the plate is then developed to reveal the different cannabinoids. Each cannabinoid will be displayed as a dot that has travelled up the plate a different distance; the size of the dot will indicate the concentration.
This technique is much more cost effective and requires a lot less equipment compared to other techniques, but it does not give true quantitative results. It is much more suited to giving an indication of levels rather than accurate data. Near-infrared spectroscopy can offer nearly instant analysis with the need for very little sample preparation and no requirement for solvents. The technique works by looking at the unique adsorption spectrum of the different cannabinoids.
With a higher margin of error when compared to gas or liquid chromatography, this technique is more suited to samples with higher concentrations of cannabinoids as the limits of detection are not really suited for looking at low-level cannabinoids, such as cannabinol CBN , or for hemp and CBD, where THC levels are expected to be below 0. If the cannabis industry is to truly prosper, it must bring about substantial change. For example, it must promote education. Companies need to understand how testing can be implemented and the benefits it can bring.
It can give companies access to information that helps them improve business decisions, expand, and become more competitive. This in turn, builds consumer confidence and aids market growth. Andrew James andrew. Log in to leave a comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. GEN Edge. NeuBase Sets a Course for the Clinic. All Trends for Developing a Biomanufacturing Platform to Fill a Need.
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CBD products must undergo various quality control measures to ensure in Cannabis sativa L., inhibited any therapeutic potential of this plant. The only way to ensure our products are of the highest quality is to control every step of the supply chain process. From the planting of the seeds.
Is cannabis finally hitting the mainstream? More and more states are legalizing the plant for both recreational and medicinal use. As a result, cannabis laboratory testing has grown from an afterthought to a multimillion dollar industry in its own right. But with such quick growth, quality control in the cannabis industry and in testing labs themselves is now more important than ever. In many ways, cannabis is just like anything else that we buy and consume.
Up until now, the credibility of the cannabis testing industry in the United States has been under scrutiny.
The only way to ensure our products are of the highest quality is to control every step of the supply chain process. From the planting of the seeds, through the complete growing process, to our propriety extraction methods and laboratory testing.
Cannabis / Hemp Quality Control Testing
As the cannabis industry continues to evolve, market pressure will increase on businesses to adopt standardized methods to improve product safety, consistency and predictability. To do this, cannabis companies should consider the business modes of consumer packaged goods CPG companies, according to Shehzad Hoosein, executive vice president of Cannabistry Labs , a cannabis research, development and branding company. In order to achieve this level of safety and quality, he says, companies should build teams that either have backgrounds in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical markets, or that undergo the same training and follow the same standard operating procedures as teams in those industries. Adopting FDA standards in the production of cannabis-infused foods and beverages can also help improve safety, he adds. Companies should follow FDA guidelines as if the FDA is actually auditing the cannabis industry, Hoosein says, to ensure they are using safe and high-quality ingredients in their products. In addition, to improve safety in overall production procedures, cannabis companies can look to Good Manufacturing Practices GMP , which have been outlined to ensure safety in food production.
How the Cannabis Industry Can Adopt Standardized Quality Control Methods
We respect your privacy. All email addresses you provide will be used just for sending this story. As head farmer at Veritas Farms in Pueblo, Colo. As it turns out, those are also two of the most important factors that consumers should consider when choosing among the thousands of CBD products now being sold across the country. Such demand keeps Meyer—vice president for operations at Veritas Farms pictured above as well as a retired fire captain and an Air Force veteran—on alert. When a plant contains 0. But if a plant has THC levels above 0. To protect against that risk, cannabis plants should be tested frequently while they are growing, and finished products should be tested, using validated methods, too, Boyar says. And among those that do, the details vary considerably. As a result, consumers need to take matters into their own hands and often have to rely on CBD manufacturers to self-police.
As products flood the market, the lack of government oversight makes it hard to distinguish quality from junk. Not only could this result in not getting any of the desired health benefits of CBD, but it could also put your health in jeopardy.
Lisette Wijnkoop was educated as a pharmacist and have been working a lot in the field of natural medicines like homeopathy. In she started with cannabis as medicine in a specialised cannabis pharmacy in Groningen in The Netherlands. This project ended after one year and she started to work at Bedrocan, both as a quality controller of the processing of cannabis and as an adviser for patients, doctors and others in the medical field.
Importance of Quality Control in Cannabis Testing Labs
With debates over the legalization of cannabis and cannabis-derived products raging all over the world, it is time for the cannabis industry to start defining testing standards. The industry needs to take its responsibility to its consumers seriously by providing them with a consistent, quality product that carries the reassurance of standardized methods of testing. This article will discuss why cannabis quality control is important how it may be implemented. The cannabis, hemp, and cannabidiol CBD marketplace is constantly evolving as an increasing number of countries begin to have less stringent views on the legalization of cannabis and cannabis-derived products. It is imperative that the skills and knowledge of analytical testing evolve simultaneously with the rest of the industry to ensure the quality and safety of the end products. I have spoken with many people across the industry—growers, extractors, and consumers—and it is evident that awareness of and desire for testing have grown significantly. There is, however, a lot of confusion about where to begin, what technologies are suitable, and what purposes the results can serve—and whether the results can even be trusted. Testing falls into two main categories: internal quality control and certification for regulatory compliance. Any testing for regulatory purposes should be conducted independently to avoid potential conflicts of interest, and the competence of the facility performing the test should be independently verified, for example, by ISO certification. Although the equipment can meet the analytical requirements of sensitivity and selectivity for the compounds of interest, without independent verification of other factors—such as the validation of methods being used, the calibration of support equipment, and the training and competence of the operators—the results generated cannot be used for legal certification. I would advise anybody sending samples out to testing laboratories to find out what independent certification of competency they hold. Although external verified testing laboratories are crucial in the prevention of potential conflicts of interest and the lack of credibility self-certification can bring, in-house quality testing can still bring many benefits.
CBD Quality Control Measures
For a long time, it was believed that the psychoactivity of tetrahydrocannabinol THC , which is one of the primary active ingredients in Cannabis sativa L. However, since , over 1, scientific publications on the actions of cannabidiol CBD , which is the other major ingredient of Cannabis , proved that not only does CBD lack the psychoactivity of THC, but also exhibits a wide range of therapeutic benefits. Due to the popular demand for CBD products, the widespread production and marketing of these treatment options must still undergo various quality control measures to ensure their safety and efficacy for consumers. ElRoi Shutterstock. Unfortunately, this absence of strict FDA enforcement and oversight, as is required for any other pharmaceutical drug, has led to the widespread mislabeling of CBD products. Between and , the FDA sent warning letters to 25 companies addressing concerns that they were violating FDA rules on making false claims about the curative properties of their CBD products.