What To Look For In CBD Lab Reports?
CBD lab reports can be a good source of information about a cannabinoid product, but you need to know how to read and understand it.
Most first-time consumers have no idea how to gather information about a CBD product to confirm its authenticity.
The first thing to note is that, when buying products from any online CBD shop, ALWAYS make sure they have lab reports available.
In this article, we will explain everything about CBD lab reports and will show you how to read one.
What Is A CBD Lab Report?
A CBD lab report or a certificate of analysis is a third-party report conducted by a certified laboratory that gives a breakdown of the ingredients in a CBD product.
As the CBD industry is still relatively new and there is no universal standard for assessing the quality of CBD products, CBD lab reports are the only way to analyze the quality of CBD products currently sold in the market.
Most reputed CBD brands hire outside labs to check and verify their CBD products and these lab reports also known as “certificates of analysis” and “third-party lab reports” are often the only source of information about CBD products.
Due to a lack of industry-wide standards, CBD lab reports become even more vital as these reports are the only way a consumer can be sure about the quality of a CBD product.
How To Read A CBD Lab Report?
Certificates of analysis vary significantly from one another as some may only mention the information about the cannabinoid present in the CBD product.
In contrast, others may offer a detailed analysis that involves information about terpene, heavy metal presence, pesticides, or solvents.
We will now discuss some of the main elements of a CBD lab report:
1. Cannabinoid Profile
A cannabinoid profile is perhaps the most important and most common part of a lab report as almost all lab reports have it.
Cannabinoid profile lists all the Phytocannabinoids that are present in a CBD product, including THC, and CBD.
Without a cannabinoid profile, one cannot know if the product contains CBD at all or the percentage of CBD in a product.
The higher the percentage of THC, the more powerful (it gets you high with a small dose) the CBD product is.
2. Terpene Profile
Terpenes are the aromatic oil naturally found in cannabis that gives CBD its unique scent. They offer synergistic benefits in addition to the effect of CBD via the entourage effect.
Most CBD lab reports also include a terpene profile of all types of terpenes present in a product that mentions the concentration of terpenes in the CBD product being tested.
3. Heavy Metal Screening
Some CBD lab reports may also screen a product for the presence of heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic, etc. to ensure that the heavy metal content is within the prescribed limits.
4. Pesticide Screening
This part of a CBD lab report verifies if the product is free of pesticides or not. If the lab detects traces of pesticides, then it will list all such pesticides in the report.
5. Solvent Residue Screening
Several extraction methods use different types of chemical solvents to extract CBD from raw hemp. There is a high chance that some of this solvent will remain with the CBD as a result of the extraction process.
Solvent residue screening is done to ascertain if the final product is free of any solvents or not.
Hopefully, now you know what are the most important elements found in a CBD lab report and how to properly interpret them.
Anyway, if you’re looking to buy CBD products for your personal use, make sure to do it from reputable sources that are not afraid to publicly publish their third-party lab reports.
