Within the world of CBD, there’s a lot of talk about certificates of analysis, or COAs. These documents can be confusing but are an important part of the industry. Not only do COAs help ensure transparency, but they can also help consumers better understand what’s in their products.

Knowing that COAs are important is a great start but reading one is no joke. With all the numbers, abbreviations, and charts, knowing what to look out for or what it means can be a challenge. However, when you’re able to break them down into smaller, more manageable pieces, they can become a lot easier to make sense of.

What is a COA?

A COA is a document that outlines the profile and chemical makeup of a CBD product. Conducted by accredited third-party labs, a full COA typically includes results for cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids, heavy metals, pesticides, residual solvents, aflatoxins, bacteria, yeast, and molds. What’s actually included in the COA will depend on what was requested by the client and what the lab is capable of. Between the diversity in COA presentation and the lists of numbers and testing terminology, COAs can be hard to understand.

Canada regulates cannabis testing, particularly around pesticides, in order to ensure that products are safe for consumption and best testing practices are being followed. Additionally, there seem to be a few cannabinoids that are more regularly tested for, such as THC, CBC, CBN, CBG, and CBC. However, this list seems to deviate regularly depending on the lab or what information the company requests. The same could be said for terpenes and flavonoids.

While not explicitly required by the Canadian Cannabis Act, we think extraction COAs are important and should be provided by manufacturers to the general public. This would ensure transparency in all parts of the process, particularly to show consumers that any solvents used in extraction, as well as pesticide and bacteria levels, are within regulation and safe for consumption. COAs showing a product’s specific cannabinoid, terpene, or flavonoid profile may also be useful information for consumers, since this may impact the product’s flavor, smell, taste, or effect. Understanding the particular makeup of a product can help equip consumers to better understand what they’re purchasing.

Lot Number

Generally, when products are cultivated, processed, or extracted, they’re assigned numbers based on the lot, or grouping, they fall into. This way, particular products can be linked back to specific lab tests and results, largely for traceability reasons. Different product lots have different COAs to ensure every new grouping has been thoroughly tested. The lot number of a particular product should be available on its packaging.

Units

This is the section of the COA that determines how content measurement was made. Sometimes this is listed as mg/g or mg/kg, while in others it could be listed as a total content percentage. For example, a lab might be testing for how many milligrams of lead can be found in a kilogram of extracted oil, or alternatively, the percentage of ethanol remaining after the extraction process.

Reporting Limit

This category is often abbreviated to RL, though depending on the COA, other abbreviations such as LOQ or LOD may be present in this category instead. Essentially, all these terms mean a similar thing: the minimal amount of content the lab can detect. For example, if the lab was looking for the percentage of the terpene, Myrcene, and the RL was 0.01, this means that the lab cannot detect any amount lower than this. This does not necessarily mean that the sample doesn’t contain any of this substance, but rather, it may appear in amounts too small to be detected or specifically measured.

Results

This last category is ultimately how much of something was found when the analysis was being conducted. For example, if the lab was testing for the amount of Delta 9 THC milligrams per gram, and the result listed was 22.7, this means that the Delta 9 THC content is 22.7mg/g.

It isn’t uncommon to see numbers listed with a ‘less than sign,’ like < 0.50. This simply means that the amount of a particular substance found was less than the RL and the specific number was unable to be determined. Additionally, specifications like N/A being listed generally means that no amounts of this substance were able to be detected within the sample at all.

In terms of heavy metal and bacteria content, however, it is important to note that just because an amount over the RL may have been identified, this does not mean that the sample doesn’t pass safety regulations.

Testing Specifications

Due to audits and other regulations, labs have to release information about what methods were used for testing. Often times, these tests are listed on the COA, labelled as ‘methods’ or ‘method summary.’ They may also list the dates these tests took place. If not included on the COA, the labs have to provide additional method information to the company in order to ensure that the correct methods of testing were used. This is additionally important as the lab has to validate that those methods can produce the repeatable results – something that’s difficult to do when it comes to testing plant matter.

Although testing methods may be confusing and not necessarily applicable for consumers, having the extra transparency in COAs is never a bad thing. If testing methods are listed, consumers can do their own research to assess and understand the testing procedures themselves.

TL;DR

On the surface, COAs can seem intimidating, full of numbers and strange abbreviations that don’t make much sense. However, after spending a bit more time learning to understand them, COAs are an important tool for consumers. They ensure company transparency in terms of product safety. They can also provide information about a product’s cannabinoid, terpene, and flavonoid profile so consumers have a better understanding of what they’re purchasing.