So the results for my salve are coming in consistently low after testing and I’m just not sure how to proceed at this point.
The test results on my crude have been pretty consistent so I don’t think that is the issue so here is what I am doing?
My 1000mg test batch is a total of 23 cups. In that 23 cup total, 3 cups is a mixture of olive oil and CBD crude. CBD = 659mg/g. I fill a three cup measuring cup with 2 cups of olive oil, then put it on a scale, zero it out and then I added 160 grams of crude, then I top that off until there are 3 total cups of olive/crude oil and add that to my batch for a total of 23 cups of salve.
This is heated to roughly 200F, and stirred for 15 minutes at that temp. I did not let anything settle then I immediately put 6 grams in a can for testing. In that 23 cups I get 92 two ounce cans.
8 ounces in a cup. 23 cups x 8 = 184 ounces which gives me 92 two ounce cans, (and about what I get when I’m done). 160 grams of oil ÷ 92 = 1.7grams of CBD per two ounce can should yield 1120 milligrams of CBD per two ounce can but the test results came back at 802mg which is not even close so I’m confused.
By the way, my oils and tinctures come in right where they should? What could I be doing wrong?
How are you submitting this sample to a testing lab?
Are you asking for a unit potency and providing fill weight? Is the lab telling you what the fill weight is? Or are you simply getting a % and extrapolating that to the final good?
Yes, I sent a sample to Ionizations labs for my can of 2 ounce salve and the results came back at 823mg for what I calculated for 1000mg. Then I sent a can from the same batch to KCA labs and the results came back at 851mg… This was a new batch which I sent to Ionization and it originally came in at 715mg and I spoke with them and they retested and it came in at 802mg…
If it were me I would be measuring my ingredients by weight and not volume. If you are eyeballing a volume based on a line on a flask/vessel you are not being very precise in your measurements. Since you are making x amount of bottles with y amount of distillate and coming up short on the test results I would say test at a different lab and see if you get a different result. Have you weighed the amount of product in one of your cans? Did you actually fill up exactly 92 cans to 2oz or are you just basing this off of the math you provided above?
Yes, I will start measuring ingredients by weight but in saying that I calculate 92 cans and come out with 92 cans give or take 1 but I always over calculate by 10% yet I’m still coming up short by a large amount.
I had the exact same problem when we first started… The lesson learned over the years is that coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, and beeswax all have a way of downward skewing cannabinoid potencies. The testing lab that I use has never given me a straight answer as to why this is the case but probably someone with chromatography experience could fill you in. Basically I just overshoot potencies by 10-15% and the results have come out pretty darn close to where I want to be. Also just like was already noted, you definitely should be working in weight and not volume. Densities are different for each ingredient so weight is more accurate and standardized. Good luck!
Yes, I have had multiple test run with the crude that I make and that has consistently come back in that range. The other thing is my tinctures and oil test results are always spot on with my calculations so something is going on with the salve.
…and seriously: it is probably “the labs fault”. They are not extracting all the cannabinoids from the matrix you are providing.
Yeah, you can compensate, or you can work with them and have them spike your matrix and actually figure out their recovery rate so they can give you accurate results.
Most labs don’t care. Some may still be clueless (depends on market maturity). Finding a lab that will solve this with you may be non-trivial…
@kcalabs should certainly be able to work up matrix specific recovery rate for you. Probably won’t be free, but should certainly be worth your while.
This is the one use case that you want to avoid a lab inflating numbers.
I’m not saying it’s the labs fault, just pointing out that sometimes it’s nice to pay for a super-accurate 0.01 LOQ that’s performed properly and honestly. Definitely non-trivial to find, agreed!
