People who want to use cannabidiol (CBD) but don’t like tinctures, smokable flower of vape might prefer ingesting it through edibles. There are CBD-infused treats available for all tastes—gummies, lollipops, chocolate bars, beverages, cookies, brownies, popcorn—the list goes on.
However, until regulation and standards are implemented at the federal level, it’s buyer beware. The responsibility of the verifying if the edible was lab tested and checking how the CBD was infused into the items, falls squarely on the consumer.
Leafreport.com, a Tel Aviv-based CBD analysis company, recently tested 40 different CBD edibles, including gummies, brownies, candy, honey sticks and popcorn. They tested products made by both larger, well-known companies as well as smaller brands. Their Feb. 17, 2021 report found that only one in four edibles tested contained the labeled amount of CBD advertised, and 63% contained more CBD than advertised.
“We started working on Leafreport shortly after the Farm Bill has passed. We saw the industry start to develop and many brands were established. We felt there is a lot of missing information and comparison options between brands,” says Lital Shafir, head of product at Leafreport. “We started to approach brands for collaborations, and we attended some CBD conferences to recruit a medical team. We also partnered with a third party lab in Las Vegas, Canalysis Laboratories, to serve as our testing partner so we could have an ongoing product review program.”
Canalysis Laboratories has also tested products and shared their findings for local media segments in Nevada.
Shafir says most of the companies tested are American brands, but Leafreport also wanted to include a mix of reputable brands and smaller, unknown brands in order to give the best representation of the market. Overall, their findings suggests that most edible CBD products don’t contain the correct amount of CBD as indicated in the label; only a quarter of the tested products had CBD levels that were within 10% of the amount stated on the label, whereas the remaining three quarters were off by anywhere from 11% to 177%.
The Leafreport team was not surprised. “CBD edibles are more difficult to formulate than CBD oil and contain much smaller amounts of CBD per piece, which means that variations of even a few milligrams can have a big effect,” Shafir says. “However, there are still big differences between brands, so even in products which are difficult to infuse with CBD, some brands did a good job.
The products are rated on a grading system of A (excellent), meaning independent lab tests showed CBD levels that were within 10% of what was stated on the label; through F (fail), where independent lab tests showed CBD levels that differed from the label by more than 30%.
Shafir noted that reputable brands don’t always score well and that the variances can be huge. She believes that the market still needs to mature. While it’s important for consumers to check the lab results before buying products, Shafir says that Leafreport’s strives to bring transparency to the industry and educate the users about the smart consumption of CBD.
Leafreport does state on its website that their goal “is to bring objective, trusted and fresh news, reviews, and education each and every day. Our website and services are fully free, we work on an advertising basis, where we sell advertising packages to our clients. Most of the banners you see throughout the website are paid adverts.
“Moreover, we may receive compensation for brand and product reviews. However, it is very important to distinguish that although brand owners may compensate us in order to be reviewed, this no way colors the actual content of the reviews and videos. In fact, the brands that decide to be reviewed are informed of the objectivity of the reviews before they choose to appear in our review pages.”
Leafreport was formed in 2019. Israel is a leading country in cannabis research. US News and World Reports examined Israel as the epicenter of medical marijuana in its April 11, 2017 report “The Holy Land of Medical Marijuana”. Notable Israeli hemp researchers include Raphael Mechoulam, an organic chemist and professor of medicinal chemistry who studied the structure of cannabis compounds as early as 1963.
