Building Laboratory Capacity to Ensure Cannabis Safety, Quality and Research

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Analytical Cannabis

Speaking at the Analytical Cannabis Expo East Online 2020 in October, Ken Rosnack, Principal Marketing Manager for Food & Environmental Markets at Waters, presented his talk on laboratory safety and quality in the cannabis industry. The regulatory and laboratory testing requirements for the cannabis and hemp industries are both dynamic and increasing in complexity. The analysis of cannabis and hemp requires a range of analytical techniques for determination of basic label claim information as well as low level detection of contaminants in complex plant materials, extracts and edible products. Cannabis, hemp, and its derived products present several analytical challenges. Increasingly stringent regulations demand high quality methods to generate accurate results, including laboratory proficiency testing, with a high-level of data management from seed to final product. Additionally, cannabis and hemp samples vary widely in composition and require different analytical workflows including sample extraction and cleanup procedures prior to chromatography (both liquid and gas chromatography) and mass spectrometry analysis with informatics to support data review and reporting. In this presentation, we will discuss a suite of analytical tools to address the safety, quality and research needs of the cannabis and hemp industries and learn how to develop turnkey analytical workflows for testing.