Preventing Contaminated Cannabis Requires Frequent Testing
Contamination is a fact of life in any agricultural pursuit. Try as one might to prevent and mitigate, some crops may end up contaminated by one or more of seemingly countless sources. The same goes for cannabis: From mold to pesticides, contaminants ruin cannabis products and pose a risk to consumer health. For this reason, most states set basic limits on the levels of contaminants in a cannabis product. However, these contaminants can come from any number of sources. The best way to prevent contaminants from making their way into the final product is to frequently test for them.
In this blog, you will learn:
How cannabis can become contaminated
The difference between natural and unnatural contaminants
Why testing at all stages of the cannabis supply chain minimizes risk
Where contamination comes from
There are many different types of contaminants that could ruin the quality of a cannabis plant or product. These include both natural and unnatural contaminants, each of which could result in an unsaleable crop or product.
Natural contamination
Natural contamination may occur from various processes that can arise throughout a plant’s life cycle. Some of the most common forms of natural contamination in cannabis include:
Microbes: Microbial life often thrives in similar environments needed to cultivate cannabis, making the plant a prime target for these microscopic colonizers. Molds, bacterias, yeast, and fungi all pose a threat to consumer health if not identified in a dispensary-bound cannabis product. That is why microbial testing is a key service offered by cannabis testing labs.
Mycotoxins: Mycotoxins may be the most dangerous contaminant that can be found in a cannabis product. Mycotoxins are byproducts of mold and are can develop on any agricultural crop, making them a priority for testing in the food industry. They are a particular risk for immunocompromised consumers. As a result, cannabis testing labs should, and are typically required to, offer mycotoxin testing in addition to microbial testing services.
Heavy metals: Heavy metals may exist in soil and water that nourish a cannabis plant. These minerals include lead, arsenic, mercury, and cadmium, to name a few. In large enough amounts, these highly toxic compounds can threaten consumer health, especially because the human body is unable to process them over time. This is made even more pressing because cannabis is a bioaccumulator that attracts and retains heavy metals in higher levels than other plants. In some states, like New Jersey, heavy metal testing of cannabis products is a requirement under the law.
Unnatural contamination
Unnatural contamination comes from human contact or exposure to synthetic chemicals. In the cannabis supply chain, common types of unnatural contamination are:
Pesticides: Pesticides are generally harmless in low levels, but in higher amounts are a serious contamination risk. Additionally, there is a lack of information about their safety and particularly when inhaled, which poses an additional concern for inhaled cannabis products. In New Jersey, pesticides are banned in the cultivation of cannabis altogether. That generally means products must be tested to determine whether they contain any pesticides at all. As New Jersey is following Maryland testing standards on an interim basis, cannabis products must be tested for 48 pesticides.
Residual solvents: For cannabis extracts, the concern of residual solvents is also pressing. Solvents are used to separate phytocannabinoids and terpenes from the plant material, creating a highly concentrated extract rich in those compounds. However, if not properly refined, extracts can contain high levels of solvents like butane or ethanol. These can be harmful to consumer health if not identified by a residual solvents test performed by a third-party cannabis testing laboratory.
Foreign materials: Foreign materials include macro-level contaminants that might make their way onto cannabis products. These include insects and their eggs, dirt, hair, parasites, and other dangerous and undesirable sources of contamination. Generally, foreign materials are visible to the naked eye, unlike most other sources of contamination.
Whether natural or unnatural, contaminated products pose health risks to consumers should they reach dispensary shelves. Cannabis testing labs stand as the primary barrier between cannabis producers and consumers to scrutinize products for dangerous contamination before they reach the marketplace. That is why every state with a legal cannabis industry requires some level of contamination testing by a third-party laboratory before products can be sold.
Why testing at every stage is important
Ultimately, whatever arrives at the end-user should be a high-quality, safe product that, at minimum, meets state safety regulations. However, it is not just in the grow room where things can go wrong. Contaminants can be introduced at any stage of the supply chain.
There are already countless real-world examples of contamination ruining a batch of cannabis products that otherwise would have reached unaware consumers:
In Michigan, a voluntary product recall was issued in September 2021 for batches of cannabis flower that were trimmed by a machine contaminated with chemical residue from pesticides. Some of the products made it to store shelves and were sold; without a testing laboratory to identify the pesticides, shop owners and consumers alike may never have known about the pesticide contamination affecting their products.
In Washington in July 2019, the chemical o-Phenylphenol (OPP) contaminated a batch of cannabis after it was handled using food-safe gloves that also had OPP in them, prompting a recall of the affected cannabis. OPP is listed as a known cancer-causing chemical under California’s Proposition 65.
These examples show that cannabis can be contaminated at any stage, whether during cultivation, processing, or even on the way to the dispensary. Without the results of a third-party cannabis lab test, businesses have no way of knowing if their products are contaminated, let alone at what stage in the process that contamination occurred. To protect consumer safety beyond the legal requirements set out under state law, businesses should consider testing their cannabis products at several stages to ensure contaminants are not introduced during processing, packaging, or another stage.
Cannabis labs are essential partners for cannabis businesses
Cannabis businesses need to ensure consumer safety for moral, regulatory, and business reasons. Especially in new adult-use markets like New Jersey, it is important that brands establish trust with consumers by demonstrating product quality, transparency, and accountability. A cannabis testing laboratory is an essential partner in doing so, offering an unbiased window into precisely what is inside the cannabis products it tests. With the power for a lab like True Labs for Cannabis to see down into the chemical level of cannabis products, producers can ensure they’re only sending top-quality products to market, ones that meet state regulations and consumer expectations.