Hey, there!
I have had a couple of issues using Kaycha. It seems like they test 10-15% lower than other labs on most things including concentrates and finished goods. These are products that we have sent out to other labs for comparison. Has anyone else had issues with this or noticed this? This is not my go to 3rd party lab but I have a few clients send their products there. Thoughts/Experiences?
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looks like Kaycha has labs in multiple states. Curious what state you have been dealing with them in?
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Colorado seems to be the only location they have used.
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Sent them isolate?
Is your flower testing at 40% elsewhere?
Potency inflation is a proven phenomenon.
You may want the higher numbers to be true, what evidence do you have that they are?
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Yes, even Isolate that was tested at 2 different outside labs tested 7% lower. Who knows, HPLC results can be biased and can vary significantly with a sneeze.
I work at a testing lab and we’ve tested distillates at 88% THC that clients send to other labs that test 95%+ THC. My theory is that some labs don’t have baseline separation between D8 and D9 THC in their standards used for calibration, and the analysis software will automatically clip these during integration without dropping the proper baseline. This would result in an inflation of D9 THC particularly in products with concentrations that fall at the high end of the instrument calibration range. It never gets fixed because no one is going to call to complain to the lab that their distillate/vape results are too high, and lab staff are not doing sound chromatography. You could test this theory by asking the lab to send you a picture of the integration of D9 THC for the calibration standard used to quantitate your sample. I would be interested to see if they send you that.
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Sounds like business as usual. It’s very hard to maintain integrity in this kind of market where everyone expects 85% THC to test at 95%. Do you see any other cannabinoids in the sample that make the 95% result impossible?
d8 isn’t usually present in levels high enough to boost d9 THC like you’re seeing. I think it’s more likely they just test the samples at concentrations that are off their curve where analysis will result in an overestimate the concentration of THC in the sample.
Other methods are purchasing standards that are known to underestimate, letting a standard sit out and degrade for a time, hiring a chemist who will fudge the numbers etc…
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These products im talking about are CBD products and raw ingredients, not D9 distillates. Other minors are close to expected but only CBD is off significantly. Yes, D8/D9 quantification is a little tough across-the-board but i expect that when working with those cannabinoids. There are still consumers who do not understand that it can be a package deal (to an extent) but i feel like most people are coming around to the notion that you typically see them both together. Just out of curiosity, with the labs that test D9 higher than your lab, are you seeing that the D8 then equally decreases?
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We usually test D8 slightly lower than other labs because of a similar issue. If you carefully integrate the D8 peak in samples with good chromatography you’ll see some THC isomers that normally get lumped into the D8 peak. That’s been going on for awhile now.
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Yea that’s true there are many things that could contribute. I’ve also seen labs calibrate using the nominal concentration of the reference standards instead of the certified concentration which could change the result by a few percent.
There are often a few percent of minor cannabinoids but I don’t normally see D8 in D9 distillate unless its intentionally adulterated. We’ve definitely tested distillates over 90% D9.
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We used to keep solid samples of extremely pure 99% cannabinoids on hand. That was a quick way to show people that our testing wasn’t deflating their results.
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I like that idea. Might have to start doing that myself.
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guessing by that user name you’re running a mass spec.
don’t suppose you can tell one way or the other if these folks are seeing D8 THCA?!?
This is also convenient for calibration.
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