Center for Food Safety’s report on testing and labeling Hemp CBD products is a welcome beginning to transparency and truth for a largely unregulated industry.

The Center for Food Safety a national no-profit public interest and environmental advocacy organization recently published, in partnership with the Center for Cannabis Safety, a report evaluating 40 CBD producers on their production and processing methods, testing protocols and transparency to consumers. 

In addition to detailing the manufacturing practices and providing information about the organic certification of the CBD producers, and what processing techniques they utilize in CBD extraction, the Hemp CBD report also contains results on multiple issues (self-reported by CBD producers) regarding the CBD producer’s testing for the presence of pesticides, heavy metals such as lead, and microbiological contaminants in their products.

The Hemp CBD report details that only 65% of the companies surveyed test for the presence of microbiological contaminants, and only 45% test for the presence of pesticides with a little more than half testing specifically for glyphosate. The Center’s recommendation to the CBD producers include improving their methods and testing for pesticides, contaminant, and as well for efficacy (ensuring the products contain the dosage of CBD advertised) – a poignant recommendation given the lack of federal and even state oversight and testing and the fact that  the FDA’s own testing of CBD products has produced results showing that many products do not contain the levels of CBD they claim to contain. 

The results of Center’s Hemp CBD report may have broad-reaching implications, not the least of which is that it could provide fodder for lawsuits against CBD producers for failing to disclose levels of certain contaminants that they’ve tested for, or failing to test for others, as well as creating the impetus for consumer rights advocates to begin testing products and bringing claims for false advertising and unfair trade practices for those companies that advertise levels of CBD in their products that testing refutes.

You can read the Center for Food Safety’s Hemp CBD report here. They released the report along with the scorecard embedded below: