How Does Your CBD Measure Up? 40 Companies Get the Grade

By Enjonai Jenkins

The Center for Food Safety graded 40 CBD producers from around the country. Although the packaging for most CBD products claims to be “all-natural” or even organic, many companies may be making claims not yet confirmed.

The Center for Food Safety is a national nonprofit focused on improving health and the environment through ethical food production. The CFS’s report states that “The scorecard is intended to help consumers make educated choices about the products they use and encourage companies in the industry to improve their production and sourcing policies.

The Center for Food Safety considered the following while ranking the providers:

• Whether the products were classified as certified organic or made with organic ingredients
• How manufacturers process their products (using ethanol/alcohol versus carbon dioxide)
• Whether a manufacturer tests for lead and microbiological contaminants
• How transparent the companies were in recounting their practices to consumers

Eighteen companies failed. At least 11 of the manufacturers that failed supply products in Target, The Vitamin Shoppe, and CVS as well as independent health food stores.

Six companies make CBD products that are USDA Certified Organic while 17 other manufacturers claim to use organic ingredients but lack verification. Most producers scored lower due to their lack of transparency for the missing USDA Organic certification or failing by to list clear information on their sites.

To be clear, an ‘F’ rating doesn’t mean the company is bogus. It is very difficult for companies to follow their hemp through all the stages of production resulting in the companies not having all the information on what they’re producing. The Center for Food Safety intends to shine a light on those companies by forcing them to be more aware of their production practices. They also provide an easy fix: proper product labeling.

It is also important to remember that the CFS’s score and ranking is not based upon product testing, it simply evaluates the producers in their production and processing methods, testing protocols, and transparency to consumers. It may. It seem like a lot but it’s one way to quantify the merit of products and the perception of CBD itself, and it puts us one step closer to CBD’s acceptance.