How to Read a THC Gummy Lab Report

A lab report, typically referred to as a Certificate of Analysis (COA), is a third-party document that shows the chemical composition of a given substance, including its purity, concentration, and safety. Typically, brands will post their third-party lab reports alongside their products. To access our lab reports, just scan the QR code on the product’s packaging. But once you’re there, a few more questions might bubble up—like, what in the world am I looking at?!

Here, we’ll help you dissect a third-party lab report. We’ll show you what to look for, what green flags look like, and how to notice red flags. We’ll also walk you through an example of one of our lab tests. When you pull up a lab report, your brain might go blank; it’s a lot of stuff all at once, and it’s not always the most intuitive. So, let’s help you break it all down!

First Off, What Are Lab Reports?

There’s a lot that goes into making top-shelf THC and magic mushroom products, including high-quality farming practices, gold-standard filtration processes, and state-of-the-art extraction methods. If all of these steps aren’t followed with air-tight execution, unwanted compounds can sneak their way into the batch, catching a ride through to the finished product. 

Lab reports are our safeguard to prove our product’s purity and potency. They serve as our report cards. They help us prove we not only followed the list of best practices but also exceeded them, ensuring each and every one of our products has passed with flying colors. 

A THC or magic mushroom lab report will typically tell you all of these key details:

• Batch details for the product (including cannabinoid levels)
• Information about the testing facility
• Date of testing
• Batch number
• Safety checks
• Methods used for testing

Why Are Third-Party Lab Tests Important?

Like all cannabis plants, hemp is a bioaccumulator, making it a semi-tricky plant to cultivate. For those who skipped that day in biology, a bioaccumulator is a pretty special type of plant; it sucks up just about anything it’s grown around. So, if it’s grown around healthy, nutritious soil, hemp will take in all those minerals and produce tall, green stalks. If it’s grown around harmful pesticides, heavy metals, and other toxins, though, hemp will naturally absorb them, too. So, how hemp is grown is super important to the cannabis product it becomes. 

Lab tests help show us, and you, a product’s purity, potency, and perfection. These help you see just what’s inside your product of choice, and they help us confirm that our methods are working. 

What Do We Wanna See in a Lab Report?

When you’re reading a lab report, what the heck are you reading for? There are a ton of numbers, symbols, and measurements that might not make much sense. Here are a few things you should keep an eye out for.

Batch Number

Every time we churn out a new batch of products, a sample goes straight to the lab for quality assessment. So, when you go to check a product’s lab tests, you might see a couple tests on our site. One might be from this year; the rest are probably from years past. 

Which one is the right one? 

First, check the packaging for a QR code, which will take you to our hub of lab reports. Next, check the packaging, either on the sides or bottom, for a unique batch number. Make sure that this batch number is the same as the one on the lab report. If it’s not, you have the wrong lab report pulled up. 

Testing Date

Also, make sure to check a product’s testing date. If it was tested over two years ago, this product might be expired, or you might have the wrong lab test pulled up.

Lab Credentials

Also, it’s important to have an eye out for a laboratory’s certifications. Just because someone has all that fancy equipment doesn’t mean they are qualified to test. We test ours at a laboratory with the highest-caliber certification: an ISO 17025-certified lab. To get this accreditation, a laboratory has to consistently prove it produces and maintains reliable, factual results. If their processes start to slip, an accredited lab can lose this certification. 

Milligrams of THC Cannabinoids

Also, close to the top of the report, you’ll see the milligrams of THC per gummy. If a gummy has multiple THC cannabinoids packed inside of it, the report will show just what the cannabinoids are and their relative strengths to each other. Plus, this will also show how much THC is inside the entire product. 

What Do We Not Wanna See?

While a lab report can show us all the goodness buried inside a cannabis product, they are also designed to suss out any of the unwanted elements, too. Here are a few things we don’t want to see on a third-party lab report. 

Heavy Metals

Heavy metals are often used in sub-tier farming practices. These can leak their way into the plant’s soil, absorb into the plant’s buds, and catch a free ticket through filtration, extraction, and manufacturing, winding up in the finished product. Since heavy metals can be toxic, this is a big no-no in the world of cannabis products. So, we test to make sure they aren’t there. You can see if a product doesn’t contain heavy metals by checking the lab report’s Summary of Results. If the lab report says “Pass” next to heavy metals, that means the product has been carefully vetted and doesn’t contain toxic metals. 

Harmful Bacteria

Harmful bacteria can sift their way into just about every stage of the production process, which can really impact a product’s safety. So, we make sure to test for bacteria, all to help ensure our products only contain the good stuff: decadent THC cannabinoids. If a product doesn’t contain harmful bacteria, you’ll see a “Pass” next to Microbial Analysis. 

Mycotoxins

If hemp buds are left out for too long or aren’t dried properly, they can harbor a number of different mycotoxins that can wind up in the finished product. We test for mycotoxins to ensure that they are nowhere near our final products. If a product doesn’t contain hints of mycotoxins, you’ll see a “Pass” next to Mycotoxins Analysis. 

Residual Solvents

To strip cannabinoids away from unnecessary plant material, we use a series of solvent washes. These washes help pull the cannabinoids away from their buds, while keeping other important compounds intact, like terpenes and flavonoids. After, we run these hemp buds through a series of steps to remove all residual solvents; we don’t want that anywhere near our finished product. If a product doesn’t contain residual solvents, you’ll see a “Pass” next to Residual Solvents Analysis. 

Pesticides

And last, you want to make sure there are no pesticides found on a lab report. Pesticides and herbicides are often used to keep insects away from budding cannabis plants. But remember that hemp is a natural bioaccumulator. So, if they aren’t cultivated correctly, hemp plants can soak up those toxins and stash them in their buds, which can lead to pesticides in your finished product. All of our products are pesticide- and herbicide-free. If a product doesn’t contain pesticides, it’ll have a “Pass” next to its Pesticide Analysis. 

How to Read a Lab Report

So, now that you know what to look for, how the heck do you read somethin’ like this? Well, let’s teach you how to read a lab report. 

Take a Look at Our Mango Delta 9 Gummies

We’ll walk you through one of our lab reports that outlines our always-delicious, always-potent Mango Delta 9 Gummies. 

1. Batch Information

First, at the top, you’ll see a lot of the relevant information we’ve mentioned: batch number, testing date, and sample name. Check to see that these align with what’s detailed on your packaging to make sure you’re looking at the correct lab results. 

2. Summary of Results

Next, we have the Summary of Results. This is a brief overview of just what’s inside the entire lab results. This section will show you what tests the sample passed, what it scored, and the date of the test. 

3. Potency of Cannabinoid Profile

Below that, we have Potency of Cannabinoid Profile. Since these THC gummies have one THC cannabinoid (delta 9 THC), they only show results for Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol. The first column shows the amount of milligrams per gram of delta 9 THC in the product, and the second column shows the amount of milligrams per piece in each delta 9 gummy. Other THC gummies, like our ItsPurpl Purple Punch THC-A Gummies, carry multiple cannabinoids. So, you’ll see more results for present cannabinoids in those gummies’ lab reports. 

4. Heavy Metal Analysis

Then, there’s the Heavy Metal Analysis, which breaks down all the possible heavy metals that could wind up in our finished products. As you can see, we’ve gone through exhaustive means to keep these toxins out of our gummies. That’s why each line has a “Pass.” 

5. Microbiological Analysis

Next, our Microbiological Analysis shows that no harmful microbes have found their way into our finished product. Each line ends with “Pass” to show that all seven tested microbes aren’t found in the sample. 

6. Mycotoxins Analysis

Our Mycotoxins Analysis shows that there are no detectable mycotoxins in the sample, resulting in a double “Pass.”

7. Residual Solvent Analysis

Then, our Residual Solvent Analysis shows the solvents tested aren’t present in the final sample, earning a “Pass” on each line. 

8. Pesticide Analysis

And last, taking up three pages of the report, our Pesticide Analysis shows that there aren’t any detectable pesticides that have tagged along for the ride, rounding out the confirmations needed for a clean sweep of “Pass” grades. 

Where to Find a TRĒ House Lab Report

Now that you know everything you could possibly want to know about a THC lab report, where can you find the one associated with your product? Just scan the QR code on the product’s packaging, scroll down to the relevant product, and select the one corresponding to the batch number on your product’s packaging. 

If the testing date is over two years old, there’s a high likelihood that this product is expired. So, what better time to order a fresh batch and keep the good times going?!