Worried about QA/QC in an in-house Cannabis Extraction Testing Lab? Automate processes using LIMS

The legalization of recreational cannabis has brought several challenges for cannabis extractors. Due to the increased scrutiny, they are required to get the product tested for an entire host of parameters such as impurities, potencies, and abnormalities to ensure consumer health and safety. For a cannabis extractor, more tests translate to higher turnaround time, and if a sample fails, they have to repeat the whole extraction process. Thus, cannabis extraction labs have started establishing in-house testing facilities. The in-house facility allows them to quickly test their product for cannabinoid and terpene fraction, which in turn accelerates their extraction process, saving time and cost.

Whether your lab is an internal quality control (QC) testing lab within a cannabis extraction facility or a third-party testing lab, quality control testing to identify potentially harmful substances and pinpoint the potency of plants and cannabis-infused products is imperative. Besides, it is also required to meet regulatory requirements for ensuring consumer safety.

With high sample throughput and specific regulatory requirements, Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) is a remarkably important tool for testing laboratories. The talk will highlight how a LIMS can help testing labs manage tests and QC samples, such as a  blank, a laboratory control sample, a laboratory control sample duplicate, and a matrix spike, run with every sample batch analyzed. A LIMS also helps review all reagents and equipment calibration status used while testing to assure the accuracy of test results.

Learning objectives:

1.Significance of QA/QC for In-House Testing in Cannabis Extraction Labs: In-house testing enables cannabis businesses to make reproducible products that can substantiate label claims and test products before compliance testing required by a state. QA/QC is crucial for in-house testing to support the validity and reproducibility of test results and to determine potential anomalies in test results. The talk delineates the importance of QA/QC for cannabis extraction labs.

2. Role of LIMS in Automating In-House Testing Workflows and in Ensuring QA/QC in Cannabis Extraction Labs: Automation plays a crucial role in managing QC samples, in-house testing data, and in ensuring proper calibration and maintenance of analytical instruments before use. LIMS is a crucial tool for automation. The talk highlights the role of a cannabis LIMS in managing QC samples and their test results, automating data transfer from analytical instruments to a LIMS, scheduling instrument calibration, and managing instrument calibration and maintenance data, thereby assuring data integrity and quality in cannabis extraction labs.