Third-Party Lab Testing

Reputable CBD manufacturers make it a point to have all of their products third-party lab tested prior to packaging and sale. And it makes sense: third-party lab testing is important, especially given that the CBD market is largely unregulated. Until the FDA definitively approves the natural compound, CBD markets are iffy at best, allowing sketchy manufacturers to sell mislabeled or adulterated products.

That’s why every single product at CBD Choice is third-party lab tested before finding its way to you. But many CBD users are a bit hazy on what this means. So hear it here first: third-party lab testing is one of the most important factors that should guide your CBD shopping.

What is Third-Party Lab Testing?

Simply put, third-party lab testing occurs when a private laboratory, not associated with a CBD manufacturer or distributor of any kind, performs a detailed scientific analysis of a product batch. CBD companies will usually have every batch of their product tested in order to ensure that the product maintains its quality, purity, and safety.

The “third-party” classification is the most essential component. The CBD industry is largely unregulated, as previously mentioned, so scientific tests performed by the CBD companies themselves could be misleading or cause a misunderstanding as to what is actually going into your body.

Third-party laboratories have no ties to the CBD industry and do not profit from the products they sell. This means that they maintain a level of objectivity, performing tests that accurately reflect the chemical composition of a CBD product. With third-party lab testing, the results are the results, plain and simple.

Why is Third-Party Lab Testing so Important?

When considering your health and wellness, it pays to be informed. Knowledge is power, as they say, and third-party testing allows you to be knowledgeable about exactly what is going into your body.

Furthermore, because these lab tests are objective and unbiased, third-party lab testing allows you to understand the levels of CBD within your particular product. When measuring the CBD content of any product, there is a certain margin of error. In fact, many CBD companies have received warning letters from the FDA regarding mislabeled dosage information. You have the right to know exactly how much CBD is in a product, which third-party lab results can tell you.

Third-party lab testing also details a variety of other important factors and can warn you about whether contaminants or manufacturing byproducts made it into your product. These are often unhealthy chemicals that have no business in your CBD treatment.

• Potency & Cannabinoid Profile Testing: measures the active cannabinoids present in your product, including CBD and THC
• Residual Pesticide & Fungicide Testing: tests whether any pesticides are present in the finished product
• Heavy Metals Analysis: tests for levels of arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead, and other potentially harmful heavy metals in your product
• Residual Solvents: tests whether any of the solvent compounds used to extract the CBD from hemp are present in the finished product

Is Third-Party Lab Testing Mandatory?

The short answer is no, whether we like it or not. The FDA is still studying CBD, learning all they can about the natural compound before developing a comprehensive regulatory framework. This means that there is almost no formal oversight on CBD products.

There is one exception to this, however, and it regards the active constituent THC. As per the 2018 Farm Bill, all industrial hemp and hemp-derived products are legal so long as they contain no more than 0.3% THC, which just so happens to be the average amount of THC present in hemp by dry weight. All manufacturers are required to test their products for THC in order to ensure that they remain within this federally-allowed limit. If they fail to do so, they will be prohibited from selling their CBD products within the United States.

Aside from THC testing, the CBD market is in the hands of the manufacturers. You can immediately identify a reputable CBD company by whether they provide comprehensive third-party lab testing results. In fact, many reputable companies have begun putting scannable QR codes directly on their products, allowing you to access third-party lab results from just about anywhere.

As a CBD Choice guarantee, we ensure that all of our products, site wide, have undergone comprehensive third-party lab testing. This is to ensure the quality of our oils, topicals, vapes, capsules, and other products and the quality of your CBD treatment. If you are having trouble finding third-party lab results for a particular product, feel free to reach out and let us know, and we’ll have them to you in no time!