I am using decarbed ethanol extract for making edibles. Currently, I am filtering down to .45u. In an effort to save time and filters I was considering filtering to 2.5u instead. Considering this will be used for edibles, will this significantly alter the taste? Will potency decrease? Are there other contaminants I may be missing by moving to the larger pore size?
I know here in WA, there is a 10mg cannabinoid limit per serving for edibles, and I believe Oregon is 5mg. I have a hard time believing that such low amounts of oil will affect the taste of your edible, although, that depends on the edible itself. I have been told that carbon scrubs can help remove unwanted flavors and possibly lighten up the oil. Although, you will lose some cannabinoids with the process.
To answer the potency question, anything extra in the oil will decrease potency by definition, so you will need to use a little more oil if your are trying to target a specific potency for your batch.
all you are removing with filtration is plant matter.
actual “contaminants” such as pesticides or heavy metals won’t filter out.
What scale are you doing this on?
Personal or retail?
Black/Grey/Legal market?
Try it! Filter to 2.5u, then filter 1/2 of that to 0.45u. how much weight did you lose to the 0.45u filter? can you taste the difference?
Ask a stranger…by which I usually mean send it out for 3rd party analysis…although if you’re doing this for fun not profit, you could just invite others to help with your Organoleptics .
Thanks for the feedback. 5 to 10mg dosage is what we are shooting for depending on the product. I agree that with such small amounts the flavor shouldn’t be affected all that much. My understanding is that the majority of the cannabis flavor comes from the chlorophyll but not sure what the lipids do as far as flavor. I am hoping to avoid the carbon scrubs because as you mentioned they reduce yield.
I highly recommend tasting every extract you make.
Color and taste are only loosely linked.
With properly made extracts, the variation is strain dependant and almost certainly terpenes.
When I came on board, “tastes like hate, feels like love” was on our tincture bottles. While that “hate” was predominantly chlorophyll, I would disagree that it was the taste of “cannabis”. you can extract chlorophyll from every plant.
I agree that it’s a taste you want gone to the best of you abilities. Which is why most folks use the coldest solvent they can reasonably achieve, and short residence times. you can’t filter it out. you can scrub it gone with carbon.
in CO, where a 500mg candy bar is kosher, using distillate in edibles is common practice. at 5-10mg, you can get sometimes get away using extract at 60% cannabinoids without negatively affecting the taste.
One exception I’ve found, is the high CBD strain we use. No matter how hard I try, both hydrocarbon and ethanol extracts from that strain taste terrible to me. Even when diluted to 10mg dosing. We will be moving to isolate to solve that.
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