CBD products have maintained their popularity since taking the market by storm in 2018. However, every great success is followed by imposters looking to bite at the profits. Knowing that you’re using only the highest quality and safest options available is crucial when it comes to health and wellness products.
Luckily for buyers, great CBD products include a Certificate of Analysis (COA). Here’s what to know about your CBD product’s COA so you can use it to help pick out the best products available.
The Purpose of a COA
The purpose of a COA in the CBD industry is to keep manufacturers, retailers, and consumers all on the same page regarding a product’s contents. With such an intricate process involved in creating CBD products, many factors influence the final taste, potency, and safety of these products. COAs act as a report that allows anyone engaging with the product to compare it to others, including those they’ve tried previously, and better cater their product selection to their needs. Alongside empowering buyers, COAs act as quality control for brands and retailers.
What a COA Entails
When you open your first CBD product COA, the amount of information is overwhelming. These certificates often include a large amount of industry jargon, though the information there is crucial. Thorough COAs include potency and profiling as well as hazard measurements, though many products exclude the latter information.
Product profiling explains what weight, or percentage, of the product is made up of each cannabinoid type. This information allows you to seek out products with varying balances as you find a product that best suits your intended outcomes, as well as to adhere to your physician’s advice.
Hazard measurement is key to ensuring the product you use is proven safe. Heavy metals are among the many things that CBD analysis looks for, alongside pesticides and mycotoxins. Heavy metal testing is crucial for your safety, so it’s best to further investigate any product you’re interested in that doesn’t include this information.
How To View a COA
Accessing your product’s COA varies between products and brands. As the CBD industry as we know it is relatively modern, many young brands choose to keep product COAs on their websites. Others include QR codes on the product for quick in-store scanning of the product. Some companies include a COA lot number on the product, but if you search for a COA using this number, it’s important to know which testing company the brand relied on as well.
Everything you know about your CBD product’s COA arms you with the confidence to make more worthwhile purchases. While breaking through the wall of technical jargon takes time and practice, knowing that the wellness products you rely on are safe is worth the effort.
