“Hemp growers want to know where they’re standing with their crop throughout the growing season, and the same applies to the processors,” VerdaSure’s president and CEO Ilke Panzer says. This is why Assurance Laboratories, a Wisconsin-based toxicology laboratory, launched VerdaSure, a testing lab able to determine the potency of industrial hemp, to meet the needs of local farmers operating under the hemp pilot program.
The Importance of Testing
Currently, VerdaSure is able to quantify both tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive constituent of cannabis, as well as cannabinoids like cannabidiol (CBD), when given plant samples. “Currently, 75% of industrial hemp is estimated to be grown for CBD harvest, so you would want to know the CBD content of your hemp because that may determine the price you can get when you actually sell it,” Panzer explains. By law, hemp is required to contain less than 0.3% of THC.
In order to keep crops under control, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection inspects and tests hemp, so laboratories such as VerdaSure allow professionals of the industry to know where they’re standing and what their products contain throughout the growing season. “If the result indicates that THC is above the threshold, the two options growers have with the state is to have a second test done, and after that you have 10 days to destroy your crops,” according to Tim Barta, VerdaSure’s marketing manager.
“For some strains, it has clearly been documented that, initially, as you grow your hemp, the THC stays pretty steady as the CBD continues to increase as your crop matures,” Panzer explains. “Then comes a time when the CBD no longer increases; that will be when the THC starts to spike. The perfect time to harvest is right before that. We plot that evolution and send the graph back. With several data points, growers can then determine when is the right time to harvest. You can’t have more than 0.3% THC, but you want the CBD to be as high as possible, so you try to leave the crop in the field as long as you can. You have to time it right and call the state ahead of time when you see the THC value going up. But the timing of the state has been challenging because there’s such a huge number of people growing, so it’s important to call early.”
How Hemp Is Tested
For $85 per test, VerdaSure can ship a kit to growers with instructions to pick samples and collection materials and send them to the laboratory. There, technical director Adam Jansen will oversee the process as the plant material is dried in an oven, ground up and homogenized. The resulting powder is then dissolved in methanol, and a dilution of that methanol is what is analyzed. “To do that, we use liquid chromatography—mass spectrometry,” Jansen explains. “[Mass spectrometry] is a superior detection method to many others that are used. You gain much more specificity in identifying the mass of the compound and its fragmentation.” The lab guarantees results within 48 hours of receiving the sample, but Jansen prides himself on completing the analysis of every sample received so far in less than 24 hours.
To meet the new market in Wisconsin, VerdaSure was formed from the strength of an existing laboratory with 10 years of experience, but few similar places exist. “If you are starting a testing lab for hemp only, it is very expensive to buy the [equipment to run tests]. Obviously, the state has it, larger labs that are doing a lot of other product testing have it and clinical facilities like ours might have it. But if you’re starting a brand-new lab for hemp testing only, you’d be hard pressed to spend that kind of money on testing technology,” Panzer explains.
“We wanted to make sure we get in there early on and offer the basics: THC and a variety of cannabinoids such as CBD,” she adds. “We could also look at the terpenes, flavonoids, pesticides, heavy metals and mycotoxins. Those are other things you might want to test your hemp for and things we are looking at expanding our menu for.” Among other offerings, VerdaSure can help with proper labeling, as many CBD products are over- or under-labeling the CBD potency. To protect consumers, VerdaSure provides testing so clients can be assured they are getting exactly what they think they purchased.
