In the previous article, we went over “What is a Batch”. In this article, we break down why a batch matters and how often you need to be testing them.
Once you have identified which of your products make a batch, you’ve assigned a unique identifier to the batch, and you have counted the inventory of units, you will need to have the batch tested.
- Every batch number.
- Every time.
- Even if the ingredients didn’t change.
- Even if you used the same recipe and procedure.
- Even if the last time you made it, it passed.
The reason cannabis uses batch identifiers on final products is to ensure consumer safety, consumer transparency, and improve industry validity. At the end of the day, cannabis is potentially exposed to multiple safety risks over the journey from plant material to final product, including pesticides, heavy metals, mold and fungus, solvents, and bacterial contamination.
And because cannabis is marketed for wellness and consumed in the body by consumers, these safety panels are essential to viable cannabis markets.
While some of these risk factors won’t change in each batch, there is always the potential for at least one to change. Every time a new batch is made, there is a potential for a dosing error and bacterial contamination. Even with the same recipes and the best procedures. Accidents happen, and raw ingredients get contaminated. We see it all the time.
As this industry becomes more regulated, legislatures in new states (or hemp-only states) are leaning into safety and other cannabis market precedents. Batch testing is at the top of that list.
In Georgia, each batch is required to be sampled and tested. The state inspectors initiated enforcement of the hemp industry by addressing first “low-hanging fruit”, but the next level of enforcement will include verifying and enforcing batch/lot testing. Before it is too late, set up your process to identify and test every batch, every time.
