Identifying High-Quality CBD products
You have probably noticed CBD products showing up everywhere around you - from health food stores, vitamin shops, pharmacies, convenience stores, spas, fitness centers to thousands of online retailers. The growth and diversity of CBD products has been astounding and can make finding a high-quality CBD product difficult for customers that are new the CBD market. Doing an internet search for “CBD oil” will produce hundreds of brands and products but can’t always help you determine which are the best CBD products with the most benefits.
Luckily, when it comes to CBD, knowledge is power. Here are a few things to look for that will help you narrow your search and ensure that you find the best CBD product:
Sourcing
The best CBD oil comes from Hemp plants that were grown specifically to produce oil that is high in cannabinoids (CBD, CBC, CBG, CBD, CBV, etc.) and low in THC, the psychoactive compound found in the cannabis plant. Some states like Colorado, Oregon, and Kentucky have been growing hemp for several years and provide most of the hemp plants used to make CBD oil. Since these states were some of the first to establish industrial hemp farms, they have also had the most time to develop processes that guarantee consistent, high-quality CBD oil that is naturally rich in cannabinoids and low in THC. When researching a CBD brand or product, look for information about where they source their hemp oil from. Most CBD companies that make high-quality products use CBD oil sourced from well-established farms and they are proud to share their hemp source information with customers.
Safety
After the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, CBD has become more widely available, but some people have concerns about the safety of CBD and CBD products. Luckily, hemp has been researched and studied for many years to establish CBD’s health potential and prove its safety and efficacy. Most research has concluded that CBD has little to no side effects and is safe for use. In fact, the World Health Organization, the leading authority on public health and safety concerns, released its 2017 report about Cannabidiol and concluded the following:
- “CBD is generally well-tolerated with a good safety profile”
- “To date, there is no evidence of recreational use of CBD or any public health-related problems associated with the use of pure CBD.”
- “There is also evidence that CBD may be a useful treatment for a number of other medical conditions.”
- “In humans, CBD exhibits no effects indicative of any abuse or dependence potential.”
The World Health organization also recommends that CBD research and trials continue in order to determine all the benefits of CBD and find more evidence of its potential therapeutic effects.
Purity
CBD oil doesn’t come out of the hemp plant like milking a cow; the process of taking the hemp plant and obtaining the oil is called extraction. There are lots of ways to extract the oil from the raw hemp plant, but currently the cleanest method of extraction is called supercritical CO2 extraction. Supercritical CO2 extraction utilizes carbon dioxide (the gas you breathe out), pressure, and temperature to separate the oil from the raw hemp plant material. Since CO2 extraction uses only natural gas (CO2), temperature and pressure, instead of chemicals and solvents to complete the extraction, the result is a pure, clean, quality CBD oil that is safe to produce with little or no post-extraction processing. CO2 extraction can also isolate and extract only the desired compounds, in this case cannabinoids CBD, CBC, CBG, CBD, CBV, etc., which helps to ensure a pure and high-quality CBD oil extract.
Analytical testing
So now you know what to look for in a high-quality CBD product, but how can you tell which product meets these standards? One of the best ways to evaluate CBD products is to review the analytical test results. Most high-quality CBD companies will run comprehensive analytical testing on each batch of every product they manufacture. Good CBD products will undergo several rounds of testing by an independent 3rd-party laboratory which will conduct over 20 analytical tests to ensure clean, quality, safe and verified products. The best and most trust-worthy CBD products will publish the official Lab Results for each CBD product they sell. You can usually view these test results on the product’s website or on a lab results website online.
When searching for the best CBD products, it is important to know what to look for because not all products are equal. Doing just a little of your own research into CBD products can go a long way to ensuring you buy the best, high-quality CBD product that is safe and effective.
1 World Health Organization. (2017, November 6-10th). Cannabidiol (CBD) Pre-Review Report Agenda Item 5.2 Retrieved from https://www.who.int/medicines/access/controlled.../CannabidiolCriticalReview.pdf
