How To Buy Genuine CBD
Feeling confident in your CBD purchasing decisions is of vital importance when selecting a CBD product that you intend to integrate into your daily wellness regimen! It’s also the “smart money” way of verifying that you’re receiving exactly what you’re paying for!
CoA! Say What?
Conveniently, “CoA”s or “Certificates of Analysis” are offered by the majority of conscientious manufacturers to get you the information you need prior to purchasing their product. A CoA, in its purest form, is a very granular document that provides detailed info on the chemical breakdown of a CBD product. These reports identify which cannabinoids are present as well as the amounts of each. Remember that while there are plenty of options to choose from at DirectCBD, not all products are created equal, so it’s important to consult the CoA of the products you’re interested in for each and every purchase!
It’s real science!
A CoA is produced by scientists and lab technicians in an actual laboratory! How are we “regular folks” going to be able to understand the valuable information presented within this scientific document? Fortunately, understanding the information in a CoA is actually easier than it may first appear! Let’s begin at the beginning and work our way through the various critical bits of information that we find!
Here is an actual COA for the awesome DirectCBD CBD Licorice Bites. We’ll use the CoA for this incredible product as an example for pointing out where you’ll want to look to get the information you need to make a great decision on a CBD product that will be just right for you! Ready? Let’s do it!
Reading the report card!
Remember report card day back in school? Well, if you could figure out that you were failing math (and probably were going to get grounded for a month…) you’ll be able to read a CoA! Think of a CoA as a report card for a CBD product but instead of reading, writing, and arithmetic, we’ve got a bunch of cannabinoids like CBD, THC, CBG, etc! Ok!
Let’s take it from the top
First, let’s point out that our example CoA was generated for an actual product produced by DirectCBD and currently available on the DirectCBD.com site (check it out here if you don’t believe us…) — DirectCBD Licorice Bites with 1000 mg of CBD isolate!
Looking at the top left corner of the CoA you’ll see the name of the laboratory that performed the analysis of the product and prepared the certificate. Because the company that manufactures the product might be biased, it’s important to verify that the certificate has been prepared by an independent laboratory. Having an independent laboratory analyze and prepare the CoA keeps everyone honest and makes certain that the consumer is getting the most accurate information about the product!
What About the Product?
Right under the name of the laboratory, you’ll begin seeing information unique to the product itself, the variety of tests that were performed, who performed the test, for whom, dates, times, and more! Every CoA gets a unique certificate ID which is great for identifying closely related products or in sorting out potential discrepancies in the results.
Product info reported on the CoA includes the batch number, a general classification of the product type, and other pertinent product information. Dates are given for when the lab received the sample and also for when the testing was actually performed and the signature and name of the supervisor overseeing the testing and certifying the results. Sometimes, the lab will even include pictures of the sample as it was received.
All aboard the cannabinoid caravan!
Below the lab and sample information, we get into the really interesting stuff: what’s in the product! The chart included in the CoA lists the entire spectrum of cannabinoids that may be found in the product along with the actual detected levels of each. Beneath the chart you’ll see some fine print that explains more about the nomenclature and abbreviations in the chart and info on how the data was calculated.
As an example, the fine print lets us know that “ND” is an abbreviation for “None detected” — which in the case of THC content is excellent news! If you look at the second line of our example CoA’s cannabinoid profile labeled “CBD”, you’ll see that just over the stated 1000 mg of CBD has been detected in the sample. Great!
Has anybody seen a CoA around here?
“No CoA? Don’t pay!”is a good guiding principle when it comes to purchasing CBD products! Another point of note is to make sure to check the dates, lot numbers, and other info provided about the sample received. If you see a test date that seems like it was performed quite a while ago, a lot or batch number that doesn’t fit, or anything else that seems “fishy” – you may be looking at an invalid or obsolete CoA.
It’s important to remember that CBD is sourced from plants that, much like people, are all individually unique with their own particular differences in their chemical or molecular composition, and that’s why it is so critical to check that the CoA you’re checking is still valid for the product you’re considering purchasing.
Ready…Set…CBD!
We hope that now you know a little bit more about CoAs and how to read them! At DirectCBD we provide links to the CoAs for every CBD product in our inventory! Make sure to take a look at these vital documents and you’ll always have the peace of mind to shop with confidence! If you’re ready to find your perfect CBD, head over to DirectCBD.com and use your CoA knowledge to find the product that’s right for you!
MaryJane’s Last Word
This is a sponsored post but that does not negate the value of this information. A CoA is a much better way to determine the quality of the CBD product you are buying than just relying on the advice of a friend down the street. I am happy to have this relationship with DirectCBD. I encourage you to give their products and service a try if you are in the market for CBD.
Send me your comments, suggestions, criticisms, and questions in the comment area below. I love to get photos of your growing successes as well:MaryJane@420Beginner.com
