Lab Results Explained - CBD & THC
Third Party Lab Results…What do they mean?
So you’ve found a CBD product you want to try from a seemingly reputable brand, and your looking at the third party lab results they provided you for the product - now what?!
A recent study published in October 2020 (link below) showed some alarming facts about how few people really know what they are consuming when it comes to hemp & CBD products.
Study: Knowledge of THC & CBD Levels among Cannabis Consumers in the Unites States & Canada
Now that you’re reviewing the lab results you begin to realize… “I don’t know what any of this means! What is “<LOQ”? Why are some hemp analysis numbers in percentages and some are mg/g?!”
The good news is everything you need to know about the product you’re interested in was just given to you, even if it’s not clear on first glance.
That’s why we wrote up this quick guide on how to read CBD lab results to help you navigate these potency & purity reports more easily!
So let’s talk about how to identify the key items on Lab Results, sometimes called a Certificate of Analysis (COA) that will let you know if this CBD product is worth your hard-earned money.
The first important thing to know is there are a lot of labs doing CBD & THC potency testing, and each lab is going to have their own format for displaying the results. That being said, they should all contain the same basic information that can be interpreted the same way.
* Note, the lab doing the testing needs to be legitimate and accredited with a proven track record, but that’s a whole other conversation for another time.
To make this discussion easier, we’ve included the lab results below on our finished caramel, and the raw hemp flower we use to infuse the butter for our caramels.
As much as labs can vary in how they format their final report, there’s one thing that will be provided at the start of each report - a summary of the CBD & THC content.
For some consumers, this may be all you’re looking for to confirm that the CBD potency listed on the label is accurate.
Lab Results Examples:
Lab Results #1
Lab Results #2
As you can see, the result summary can look very different from report to report, but the information provided is the same. What these summaries are telling us is the “percent by weight” of that product that is CBD and THC.
In other words, say you are buying an edible that weighs 18 grams, and you got the “Lab Results #1” shown above. What this is telling you is that of those 18 grams of edible, 0.3012% of that weight is CBD.
One of our main goals in reviewing the lab results is to verify that what’s on the report matches what’s on the product packaging, and nearly all consumable products list their CBD content in milligrams (mg).
So you may be asking…what good does this % by Weight do me!?
The Formulas below convert CBD and THC (% by Weight) to (milligrams) in the Edible.
Option #1
Convert the % by weight into total milligrams (mg)
I know what you’re thinking…“Ughh…math”, right?
If that’s your first thought, no problem, we will keep the math simple.
But if you’re a numbers nerd like us, we dive deeper further down.
For the “Weight of Edible”, we used the weight of one of our caramels (18 grams).
And the “Potency %” used is from Lab Results #1 above.
Weight of Edible (18 grams)
X Total CBD (0.3012%)
X 10
= 54.2mg = Total CBD in Edible
The same equation can be used for THC:
Weight of Edible (18 grams)
X Total THC (0.0107%)
X 10
= 1.9mg Total THC in Edible
Why did we multiply the CBD and THC % x 10 above?
There’s some conversion math we left out to simplify things.
But know multiplying x 10 is a simplified method for going from (% of CBD) to (mg/g of CBD).
mg/g = milligrams per gram
Option #2
Use mg/g instead of % by weight
As you move deeper into the lab results, the next thing you should find is a breakdown of the potency analysis which lists the CBD & THC content in mg/g.
mg/g = milligrams per gram
An important exception here may be lab results for flower - smokable flower CBD & THC contents are not typically advertised in mg/g units but rather just as the % by weight.
You’ll see in the potency analysis below, the sections for Total CBD & Total THC are listed in mg/g.
Lab Results #3
So with this information, and using 18 grams as the edible weight, here’s what we can do:
Weight of Edible (18 grams)
X Total CBD (2.699 mg/g)
= 48.6mg = Total CBD in Edible
Once again, the same equation can be used for THC:
Weight of Edible (18 grams)
X Total THC (0.091 mg/g)
= 1.6mg = Total THC in Edible
As you can see, it’s almost the same equation as Option #1.
Whew! Ok, the good news is the heavy lifting is over. No more math now, promise :)
What do the LOQ and <LOQ terms mean?
You might see LOQ or <LOQ on lab results and edible labels.
They are interchangeable and are used to mean the same thing.
LOQ = Limit of Quantitation
LOQ is the smallest possible amount a specific testing protocol can measure.
In general, if you see LOQ on the lab results or label, you can assume it’s the same as zero. Even though that might not be true as there could be trace amounts, for this purpose, we can assume it’s zero.
Now we’ve accomplished our main goal!
You now know how to use Third Party Lab Results to confirm the amount of CBD & THC in an edible product.
If the lab results match the CBD & THC content listed on product, you’ve taken a big step toward ensuring you’re buying a trustworthy CBD product.
If the CBD lab results you’re shown do not match the amounts on the label, that’s a major red flag about the quality and transparency of that company’s edible.
References:
Hammond D and Goodman S. "Knowledge of Tetrahydrocannabinol and Cannabidiol Levels Among Cannabis Consumers in the United States and Canada". Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research X:X, 1–10, DOI: 10.1089/can.2020.0092.