You want to get what you pay for, right? Most of us do. In fact, it can be disheartening to spend a lot of money on something only to discover that you have been misled. It is with that and mind that this post will discuss CBD products. Recent testing conducted by Leafreport found that far too many are mislabeled.
Operators in the CBD space face very little regulation at the time of this writing. While they are not allowed to make unfounded medical claims about their products, they also aren’t forced to subject said products to rigorous testing. Accurate labeling also isn’t being enforced.
The fact is that Leaf report’s analysis proves what has long been considered a problem in the CBD industry. Without someone looking over manufacturer shoulders, products are being mislabel. Whether that is intentional or not is unclear. Consumers need to be aware either way. Learn more about Mislabeled CBD Products at https://cbdjiaoyi.com/
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The Majority Mislabeled
Leafreport specifically looked at CBD sleep-aid products for this particular study. They have also tested CBD oils, beverages, and other related products in the past. For this study, they purchased fifty-two sleep products and sent them to an independent lab for testing. All they wanted to know is whether product labels were accurate in terms of ingredients and volume.
Surprisingly, the majority of the samples did not line up with what their labels said. Some 60% proved inaccurate for CBD, CBN, or melatonin. In order to be more specific about testing results, Leafreport graded each of the products based on the level of inaccuracy. Here is what they came up with:
- Excellent – Tests and labels were within 10% of one another
- Decent – Tests and labels were within 20% of one another
- Poor – Tests and labels were within 30% of one another
- Fail – Tests and labels conflicted by more than 30%.
The good news is that 40% of the tested products got an Excellent grade; another 35% were rated Decent. Combined, that means 75% of the products were within 20% accuracy. But is 20% good enough?
Consumers Need to Know
So many CBD products being mislabeled doesn’t reflect well on the industry. Something needs to be done to improve accuracy. As for consumers, they need to know what it is they are buying. They cannot trust manufacturers and their labels, so they have to dig a little bit deeper. That is where Certificates of Analysis (CoA) come into play.
Utahmarijuana.org, a Utah organization that helps medical cannabis patients obtain their state medical cannabis cards, explains that a CoA is a document proving that a product has been independently tested and analyzed. Some CBD manufacturers take the extra step of obtaining CoAs and subsequently publishing the documents on their websites.
Consumers should look for CoAs. Likewise, when a manufacturer claims to have had its products independently tested, they should publish the test data. Consumers should identify the name of the test lab and verify its legitimacy. With that out of the way, reading a CoA to determine accuracy isn’t hard.
All you are looking for is whether or not the ingredients mentioned on the label were found in the correct amounts. A typical CoA offers a chart that can be easily scanned. Many such reports also grade accuracy similar to how Leafreport did for their study.
Until something in the CBD space changes, consumers cannot necessarily believe everything they read on product labels. That makes it ever more important to do one’s homework. Smart consumers who want to guarantee they are getting what they are pay being for need to become investigators. That is the bottom line.
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