Just over a year ago, few would have predicted the impact Minnesota would have on the hemp-infused beverages category. The move by Minnesota to legalize low doses of hemp-derived delta 9 THC has seemingly blown open the barn doors on exploiting the legal ambiguities created by the U.S. Farm Bill. This has allowed for the growth and distribution of hemp derivatives throughout the US. 

While we’re not here to interpret what is legal or not (that’s not our place, and quite frankly it can be hard to really know), we certainly do care about consumer safety and the reputation of the cannabis beverage sector. 

The Vertosa team recently traveled to Minnesota to experience and sample the newest entrants to the infused beverage category. It proved to be a dream realized, being afforded the option to order low dose D9 beverages at restaurants alongside their alcohol counterparts and walking into convenience stores with shelves full of hemp D9 beverages mixing in naturally with the rest of the beverages and snacks.

"Without accurate labeling, consumers are at risk of feeling little to none of the desired effects, or worse, consuming more than intended. This threatens to break the trust of the consumer and damage the reputation of the hemp and cannabis beverage industries."

Further Evaluations

Based on our experience with dubious potencies in the early days of legal cannabis and unregulated hemp CBD, we felt it was important to see if history would repeat itself within the hemp D9 infused beverage sector. On our tour through the North Star State, we made a conscious effort to pack up the widest selection of hemp-D9 beverages we could, and returned to the lab with about 20 different units. Working closely with our preferred lab testing partner, Anresco¹, we ran potency tests in an effort to determine the accuracy of labeling for Minnesota beverages.

Our findings were similar to those previously reported years ago about the unregulated CBD product category in that those reports showed that more than 50% of CBD beverages tested contained significantly less or more CBD than advertised. Today, our testing of the hemp D9 sampling showed similar results, with some products coming in at 0 mg potency and others as much as 39% higher than the labeled amount.

It is important to note that most of these products are low dose (5 mg servings) and that 39% variance is still only 2 mg. In isolation, this is not a huge concern, but considering that most of the products are intended to be sessionable (more than one consumed in a sitting), there can be a compounding effect that would lead to an inconsistent, and in some cases, unwanted experience.

Table 1 shows the results of all the products we tested.

Without accurate labeling, consumers are at risk of feeling little to none of the desired effects, or worse, consuming more than intended. This threatens to break the trust of the consumer and damage the reputation of the hemp and cannabis beverage industries. Again, less impactful with low dose products, put gone unchecked with a high dose product and you may run into problems. Additionally, inaccurate labeling can lead to legal issues for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers as has recently been the case with a slew of class action lawsuits in the hemp and cannabis markets.

However, it's not all bad news for the hemp D9 beverage industry in Minnesota. Many brands did have accurate labeling and demonstrated consistent potency across multiple products. These brands are a testament to the potential of the industry and show that it is possible to create high-quality, accurately labeled hemp-infused beverages.

A flood of new hemp-derived D9 products have entered the Minnesota market since the passage of a 2022 state law allowing for the sale of the products in mainstream retail outlets like grocery stores and gas stations.

Mitigating Efforts

The key challenge facing the industry is the lack of regulations and standards in the hemp-D9 sector. With the category still in its infancy, there are few guidelines in place for manufacturers to follow. However, it’s not unreasonable to believe that these products should proactively be held to the quality standards of the regulated cannabis markets. 

At Vertosa, we have successfully supported the launch of hundreds of shelf-stable infused beverages with reliable potency across 17 regulated markets - including meeting the benchmark federal food safety and labeling laws enforced by Health Canada.

If you or your infusion partner are not currently considering potency accuracy and post-manufacturing stability, we recommend doing so in your next manufacturing run. If you’re being asked to overdose a product by more than 10%, you may want to ask more questions about shelf-life stability. We’ve been investigating potency stability for the past four years and recommend investigating the following considerations: 

• Physical Stability: do droplet sizes of your infusion remain consistent over time? 
• Chemical Stability: are you preventing oxidation of the THC molecules? 
• Ingredient Compatibility: how is your infusion system interacting with other ingredients?
• Manufacturing Efficiency: are you losing material in the infusion process?
• Manufacturing Stability: do any of your manufacturing processes, such as heat-treatment, impact the stability of your infusion?
• Oxidation Control: are you able to control dissolved oxygen levels?
• Packaging Stability: is your infusion system adhering to your chosen packaging? 

In the broader hemp industry, since the FDA still has not provided guidance for CBD in food products, distributors proactively became the gatekeepers of quality, demanding certificates of analysis (COA) to prove product accuracy and stability. This has allowed them to build trust with retailers and ensure consumer safety and happiness. We believe the same trend will occur with D9 beverages and this is our effort to provide a nudge in that direction. This will help to ensure that consumers are getting what they expect and limits potential legal liabilities for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.

Conclusion

Our team's experience sampling the hemp-infused beverage market in Minnesota highlighted the need for accurate labeling and quality control, but was also comforting to see improvements in the quality of unregulated products in comparison to the emerging cannabis and hemp industries of the past. As the industry continues to grow, it's important for regulators and manufacturers to work together to establish guidelines and standards that will ensure the safety and satisfaction of consumers. If you have any questions or need help ensuring your product is stable and reporting accurate potency, please feel free to contact me directly at b@vertosa.com. 

Additional notes:

¹Anresco has been in business for 80 years and has been serving the cannabis industry now for about 8 years. They are an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited laboratory and recognized by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).