All laboratory testing requires consistent and objective quality assurance oversight and evaluation to ensure test results are accurate, timely, and reliable and help prevent unnecessary harm to the population.
Regardless of industry regulation, enrolment in a PT program has invaluable benefits for the participant laboratories/testing sites:
• Provides value as a quality indicator
• Instills confidence in the quality of a laboratory’s performance
• Serves as a tool for evaluation of staff competency
• Allows peer group comparisons of test results within a particular method and between different analytical methods.
While PT reveals weaknesses in the testing process, it also allows laboratories to implement corrective actions that help strengthen their quality system and thus, improve the quality of their results and services.
The lack of consistent testing regulations has created a difficult situation for growers and testing laboratories and has led to numerous product recalls both in Canada and the United States.
In April 2024, Canada’s federal regulator issued a recall for a batch of recreational cannabis sold in British Columbia, citing microbial contamination, and in February, Health Canada recalled two lots of cannabis-infused Turkish delight warning that the product could contain mold.
An article published in May 22, 2024 by Medicinal Genomics, cited 220 cannabis product recalls in the US spanning the last 7 years; 28% of these recalls were due to microbial test failures.
Meanwhile, in the state of Oregon, in a response to displeased growers who kept failing microbial tests, decided to drop the requirement altogether.
A 2020 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that persons who used cannabis were 3.5 (95% CI 2.6–4.8) times more likely than persons who did not use cannabis to have a fungal infection.
It is the responsibility of the government, growers, and testing laboratories to ensure the quality and the safety of the product that reaches the consumer.
Accreditation of testing laboratories and thus, their participation in a Proficiency Testing program, is a fundamental step in the process.
Recalls and Regulations: Unsafe for consumers, bad news for growers – Medicinal Genomics
