Why are CBD lab reports needed?
In June 2018, the FDA approved the first pharmaceutical product containing CBD called Epidiolex. Despite this approval, the rest of the industry continues to operate in an unregulated space. There is currently no quality or content control on CBD products sold in the general consumer market.
Review the lab sheets for Green Roads CBD herehttps://www.greenroadsworld.com/labsheets/
Review the labs sheets for Experience CBD here
On top of this, CBD has exploded into the mainstream consciousness and the industry is growing extremely rapidly. This growth has seen hundreds if not thousands of new brands flood the market in the last few years.
This opportunity has unfortunately attracted poor quality players in it for a quick buck. Without industry standards in place, the quality of CBD products is all over the place. Unlabeled CBD products are common and even worse there are reports of harmful synthetic knock-offs. As a consumer, this means you need to be very careful when shopping around.
Luckily, some industry-leading consumer brands have led the charge by pioneering transparency practices. Top companies are publicly displaying full company information, disclosing their production practices, and providing product contents via lab reports. This level of reporting falls in line with some of the most comprehensive state-level medical marijuana testing requirements.
Lab reports empower consumers by providing the opportunity to discover exactly what is in each and every product they purchase. This is obviously essential in today’s unregulated marketplace. There are a growing number of brands including this practice in their business and even today we encourage customers only to purchase from brands that provide lab reports for their products!
Understanding CBD Product Composition
Before we begin to dive in and start looking at individual lab reports, it’s important to understand the fundamental makeup of a CBD product.
Every product on the market contains a cannabis-extracted base ingredient in the form of a CBD extract or isolate. These compounds provide the hemp-derived content that makes a CBD product a CBD product. You’ll find extracts and isolates offered for purchase as standalone products or combined with additional ingredients to create a specific type of product.
The difference between these two core ingredients is important to understand:
CBD extract is a thick, oily substance containing the naturally occurring cannabinoids found in the plant. This extract also contains terpenes, amino acids, carbohydrates, vitamins, fatty acids, and other compounds from the source material.
CBD isolate is a crystalline substance produced by further processing a CBD extract to remove all other compounds, leaving only the single CBD molecule – usually 95%+ pure CBD.
The contents of an extract or an isolate will vary depending on the hemp source and extraction method used.
Lab reports allow you to determine the cannabis content, quality and verify that your product is free of contaminants including heavy metals, mold, pesticides and more. In some cases, lab reports may even be provided for other ingredients in a CBD product, like carrier oils.
