Favorite labs to test with!

[A. Quinn]

Hello all,
What have you found to be your favorite labs to test your materials, or items? Have you found a quick turnaround this season? What has been your wait times with your labs, and are they longer than last year?

I appreciate your candor and look forward to hearing from you!

[RAW Moderator]

Greetings,

Since I have the opportunity to talk with a number of labs, I am finding that more and more labs who can offer “full panel” testing are becoming my favorites. Having COA’s that test for not only Potency but Terpenes, Heavy Metals, and Pesticides are being asked for (and often expected) more and more.

It is important to understand that testing is NOT an exact science. Even identical products tested at the same facility are often NOT identical. Hopefully they are only a few percentage points different.

The labs I have the most experience with include Botanacor, Altitude Consulting, Desert Valley Labs and Phytotek.

[A. Quinn]

Zev,
I appreciate your insights! Yes, I have seen that many consumers and buyers require 3rd party testing as standard.
Testing is definitely different per lab as each lab seems to have varying criteria for testing. As testing becomes more standard and accepted as a determining factor within our industry how do you see the educational factors of what tests are looking for becoming a larger part of the cannabis discussion? Should there be a push from the market to standardize?
Looking forward to hearing from you.

[RAW Moderator]

Amy,
I expect that official guidance from organizations like The Hemp Authority and governmental agencies like the USDA and FDA will help tremendously in providing both guidance and standardization around testing along with other issues.

Just the one issue around counting Delta 9 and Total THC has pushed many testing facilities to expand the testing they offer for THC as well as CBD.

As the market shifts to things like terpenes and minor cannabinoids I expect to see many more testing labs offering these test as well.

My 2 cents.

[A. Quinn]

Zev,
Yes! I listed my first CBDa test today and that minor acid isolated is amazing! I’m so happy to see the minors become more mainstream like CBG and CBN along with the acids!!

I know there is serious need for our industry to standardize. I’m excited as a grower, processor and handler to see all of us use these standards to implement changes for the betterment of all of us to provide the cleanest material to our clients.

[A. Quinn]

* Clarification CBDa Isolate Product

[Erik]

Call me silly, but if your lab is using an HPLC to test your sample. They can and do pull out and isolate all of the cannabinoids during the testing.

Seems to me that one single test can be used to determine potency and lay out the cannabinoid/terpene profile. Not sure why the labs charge separately for them unless they use a GC mass spec for one test and the HPLC for the other. Anyone have any insight?

[Author]

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