Skip to main content
Blog

CBD oils: lots of choice, but poor quality

By May 16, 2023No Comments
oli cbd

CBD oils aren’t all the same. It is not an opinion, but a verifiable scientific truth which has brought us as Canax to develop the best extractive methods to achieve a product of high quality which maintains its integrity for a long time.

 

In many Countries products based on CBD, in many sectors, haven’t been entirely regulated and they are then relegated to a grey zone, escaping quality checks. If by example in Europe there are precise rules for CBD used in cosmetics, the same doesn’t apply in the food industry where the proceedings to be recognised as Novel Food have been at a stand still for months with the European Committee which has called for extensive studies to be carried out.

 

CBD oils: the options on offer keep on growing, but not the quality

While on the one hand we see more and more options on offer on the global market in constant expansion, and on the other the price of cannabinoids and products containing it after years in free-fall seem to start to stabilise, studies of products on the market emphasise how, in most cases, the values stated on the label do not correspond to the true values verified in the analysis.

 

Heavy metals in CBD product in the USA

Based on a recent study published in Science of the Total Environment some of the products with CBD in retail in the USA would be contaminated by heavy metals.

Researchers from Miami University and two laboratories in Denver – Ellipse Analytics and Clean Label Project – have analysed a large sample and report to have found lead, cadmium, arsenic and even mercury sometimes in high proportions in these products, most of which come from industrial cannabis’ inflorescences. Half of the products tested contained even alarming levels of phthalates, and last but not least the labelling of the CBD content seems to be misleading in most cases.

 

“The contamination at low level of edible CBD products with heavy metals and phthalates is common” the authors write in their conclusions of the study specifying that: “There is a substantial discrepancy between CBD potency claims reported in the product’s label and the quantities measured both in edibles and  topicals, stressing the need for strict regulation of label integrity of the products based on CBD to protect the consumers”.

 

“Lead was detected in 42% of the samples, cadmium in 8%, arsenic in 28% and mercury in 37% of the 121 edible products with CBD tested”, write adding that: “the percentage of edible products with detectable levels of phthalates varied from 13% to 80% for the four phthalates, with DEHP the most common”.

 

On the CBD levels (with 516 products tested between topicals and edibles) they point out instead that: “40% contained less of 90% of the CBD reported on the label; 18% contained more than 110% of CBD reported on the product’s label; only 42% of the products were within ±10% of the CBD declared by the manufacturer on the label”.

 

[H3] The label doesn’t match

Also for another marican study – published on Jama Network Open – the values reported in the label often don’t correspond to the real content of CBD. In a test of a 105 products based on CBD for topical use, 18% was overly labelled (>10% of CBD in less quantity than reported) and 24% was correctly labelled for CBD, THC was detected in 35% of the products (all contained less than 0,3% of THC, the legal limit for cannabis). In 37 of the products containing THC, 4 (11%) were labelled THC free, 14 (38%) reported containing less than 0,3% of THC and 19 (51%) had no reference of THC in the label.

 

It’s clear that, in the USA as in Europe, a more homogeneous regulamentation is needed to protect the consumer, who has to be well informed on what he is going to take.