ACCUSCIENCE LABS SERVICES

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Surfaces and equipment used in the preparation, manufacturing, and packaging of products can be full of contaminants. Swabbing the areas your product touches during its lifecycle can prevent failed batches down the road. It can also identify risky areas that need to be addressed. Our team will swab any surface a plant or product will touch—tabletops and prep surfaces, fans, equipment, ventilation systems and vents, racks, shelving, etc.

Why is Environmental Swabbing Important?

Microbes can live on all surfaces, and since we can’t see them, they can sneak into cannabis and hemp plants and products without us even knowing. Swabbing allows us to do “cleaning verification” before problems arise, so we can make sure that we are sanitizing prep areas and equipment properly.

How Do We Test?
We use highly sensitive PCR (polymerase chain reaction) technology to detect the presence of contaminants at a genetic level.

The homogeneity (or uniformity) of your edible is profoundly important for the experience and safety of your patient or consumer. If your product’s potency isn’t homogeneous from serving to serving or even within the same serving, it can cause adverse effects, or even a lack of any effect, in a patient or consumer. Elucidating homogeneity issues might pinpoint a challenge with manufacturing practices and help to identify areas for improvement. CannaSafe offers support and consulting to clients wishing to identify areas for improvement and to help with the creation of more accurately infused products.

Why is Homogeneity so Important? 

When a patient consumes a gummy, or a half of a gummy, or even a quarter of a gummy, they are expecting a certain amount of whatever cannabinoid the product label claims (THC, CBD, etc.). If one gummy has 5 milligrams, and another has 8 milligrams, they may have dramatically different and unpredictable effects on the patient. This can be dangerous, or at the very least create a very poor consumer experience of your product.

How Do We Test?

Dependent on the number of servings per package, we will use the following calculation to determine the number of individual potency tests to conduct (√N+1, where N = the number of servings). Each of the servings will be randomly selected from the package, separated, homogenized and prepared for analysis. The chosen individual servings will then be sent for a potency test using UHPLC-UV (ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with UV detection). Statistical analyses are then performed on resulting data.

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Nutrient/Plant Tissue Analysis

This analysis can provide insight into elements present in plant material or inert material (i.e. cartridge hardware, product packaging, soil, water, nutrients, etc.). We test for 27 common heavy metal elements.

Why is this Information Important?

As a natural bio-accumulator, cannabis readily uptakes elements from its environment. Cultivators can use this analysis to make an informed decision about their cultivation process. In addition, manufacturers can use this analysis to make an informed decision about their product packaging to reduce any potential source of contamination in final products.

The 27 Common Heavy Metal Elements We Test For Are:

• Aluminum
• Copper
• Nickel
• Sulfur
• Arsenic
• Iron
• Phosphorus
• Tin
• Barium
• Lead
• Potassium
• Vanadium
• Boron
• Lithium
• Selenium
• Zinc
• Cadmium
• Magnesium
• Silver
• Calcium
• Manganese
• Sodium
• Chromium
• Mercury
• Strontium
• Cobalt
• Molybdenum

HOW DO WE TEST?

We use ICP/MS (Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) for th

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Hidden contaminants can exist on or in your product hardware and packaging, such as in jars, tins, vape carts, droppers, baggies, canisters, boxes—any type of product housing and/or packaging. These contaminants can ultimately leech into your product, which could potentially lead to a failure of your batch.

Why Test My Hardware and Packaging?

With the high expense and time associated with creating a cannabis or hemp-derived product, it is important that your final packaging does not pose a threat of contamination leading to a batch failure or potential long-term toxicity to consumers. 

We Screen for the Following Elements:

• Aluminum
• Copper
• Nickel
• Sulfur
• Arsenic
• Iron
• Phosphorus
• Tin
• Barium
• Lead
• Potassium
• Vanadium
• Boron
• Lithium
• Selenium
• Zinc
• Cadmium
• Magnesium
• Silver
• Calcium
• Manganese
• Sodium
• Chromium
• Mercury
• Strontium
• Cobalt
• Molybdenum

Knowing the shelf-life of your products is extremely valuable. We use stability testing to determine shelf-life and product efficacy over time—such as how a product degrades and how well the packaging protects the product. This will tell you how long your products will last, what storage conditions are optimal, and how a product’s potency, for example, will change over time. We store your finished product under controlled temperature and humidity, then we test it at various time points depending on needs—say 3, 6 , 9, 12, 18, and 24 months. At each time interval, we test for potency, terpenes, microbials, mycotoxins, and water activity. In addition, cartridges are tested for heavy metals at each timepoint.

Why is Stability Testing Important?
As products degrade over time, they lose efficacy, and can even become harmful in extreme cases. Using accelerated stability studies, we can collect excellent data under controlled conditions over a short period of time that will help to reveal shelf-life of a product and exactly what changes over this period. This information will provide product expiration dates, as well as guide potential changes in packaging, choices of product ingredients and additives, or even direct an evolution in the manufacturing process itself.

How do we test?
Real-time and accelerated stability testing are performed per ICH Harmonised Tripartite Guideline – Stability Testing of New Drug Substances and Products Q1A(R2).  Real-time studies are run at 25°C/60% relative humidity (RH) and accelerated studies are run at 40°C/75% RH.

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Vitamin E Acetate used in the illicit market as a cutting agent for vape juices and cannabis extracts has recently been linked to severe respiratory illness, lung injury (EVALI), and dozens of deaths. While generally thought to be safe for human consumption, this chemical is dangerous when heated and inhaled. 

How do we test?
After preparation, we use an HPLC/DAD (high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection) to run this analysis.