Lab Testing

[Tranquility]

Does anyone know the nuts and bolts of how it works?

Here's my issue. I bought a Raw Garden cartridge of "Lime Tea" (Batch HV281) from a legal dispensary. On the package, there is labeling saying it was manufactured on 7.23.19 and packaged on 7.31.19. It lists 908.1mg total THC giving a percentage of 90.81% THC.

The lab tests are a little different:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tmOTQ9by6538OIExFrrXKK8IjCh1TZHv/view

While the package labeling does not list all the lab results so I can't compare, to the one I can, the lab lists 84.07% Total THC and 87.75% total Cannabinoids. The testing was completed 8.16.19 (After the packaging.).

Because the packaging was before the [final?] testing, it is clear the label had to be based on a WAG or on preliminary testing. But, that seems a fairly large difference in the two figures they give in the report and on the label.

Is the difference within the margin of normal? Am I missing something? I know they only sample some carts in a batch. Basic theory will have 1/2 of the products test over and 1/2 test under. This seems a bigger difference than mere rounding errors. Anyone else get a cart that tests lower than the packaging? Higher?

 

[invertedisdead]

Seems like a numerical error somewhere down the pipeline, perhaps a typo - I've had lots of Raw Garden.
As far as I know "packaging" just refers to the filling of the cartridge. I assume they print those stickers after lab results or they would never be accurate. I don't remember that type of margin with any of the ones I've bought so I can only assume an error occurred somewhere during translation.

 

[Summer]

Call the dispensary & ask about the discrepancy.

 

[Tranquility]

Seems like a numerical error somewhere down the pipeline, perhaps a typo - I've had lots of Raw Garden.
As far as I know "packaging" just refers to the filling of the cartridge. I assume they print those stickers after lab results or they would never be accurate. I don't remember that type of margin with any of the ones I've bought so I can only assume an error occurred somewhere during translation.

I've been looking online and there seems a "rule" (I have not found it yet and the articles were from a year ago.) that labeling can be off by 10%. The reason is partly because standards were not finalized and that different labs might use different standards and "the industry" wanted the range to go up to 20%. The examples I saw used other products as examples so it might be an overall California thing.

I think, no matter how it is counted, the "error" is within the 10%.

Now, let me tell a story of a long ago job, working at a place that sold precious metals to jewelers. We sold a lot of 13 1/2 karat casting shot which was used to melt down to mold rings. (Or, whatever.) Why 13 1/2 karat? Because 14 karat is the most popular "style" of gold. (Gold is mixed with other metal as pure gold is too soft to be useful in working. 24 karat is pure and 14 karat is 14/24 pure.) If so, why did we sell so much 13.5? Because labeling rules (at the time) allowed for an error of up to 1/2 a karat on testing results. That seemed reasonable as making metal exactly as wanted seemed pretty hard.

The reason why so much 13.5 karat was sold was because modern smelting is dialed in to be able to make the metal pretty much exactly as wanted. Since the jeweler could use 13.5 and label it with the popular 14 karat, he saved the cost of .5 karats of gold per item sold. Labeling requirements for gold have changed since then.

The reason for the story is that, I don't mind if my cart is less than the label if 1/2 the people buying get one higher than the label. What I *WOULD* mind is if the manufacturer has the %THC dialed in and they are doing the same the jewelers were in the old days.

 

[Baron23]

I've been looking online and there seems a "rule" (I have not found it yet and the articles were from a year ago.) that labeling can be off by 10%. The reason is partly because standards were not finalized and that different labs might use different standards and "the industry" wanted the range to go up to 20%. The examples I saw used other products as examples so it might be an overall California thing.

I think, no matter how it is counted, the "error" is within the 10%.

Now, let me tell a story of a long ago job, working at a place that sold precious metals to jewelers. We sold a lot of 13 1/2 karat casting shot which was used to melt down to mold rings. (Or, whatever.) Why 13 1/2 karat? Because 14 karat is the most popular "style" of gold. (Gold is mixed with other metal as pure gold is too soft to be useful in working. 24 karat is pure and 14 karat is 14/24 pure.) If so, why did we sell so much 13.5? Because labeling rules (at the time) allowed for an error of up to 1/2 a karat on testing results. That seemed reasonable as making metal exactly as wanted seemed pretty hard.

The reason why so much 13.5 karat was sold was because modern smelting is dialed in to be able to make the metal pretty much exactly as wanted. Since the jeweler could use 13.5 and label it with the popular 14 karat, he saved the cost of .5 karats of gold per item sold. Labeling requirements for gold have changed since then.

The reason for the story is that, I don't mind if my cart is less than the label if 1/2 the people buying get one higher than the label. What I *WOULD* mind is if the manufacturer has the %THC dialed in and they are doing the same the jewelers were in the old days.

Are you sure it lists THC and not THC-A? I believe converting one to another deducts like 17% and maybe that is the source of the diff?

 

[invertedisdead]

Are you sure it lists THC and not THC-A? I believe converting one to another deducts like 17% and maybe that is the source of the diff?

I was gonna mention that as well, but since it's distillate based I believe THC is the correct designation.

 

[Baron23]

I was gonna mention that as well, but since it's distillate based I believe THC is the correct designation.

Ah, I see.

How do you know its distillate? I don't see any reference to such in the test doc or the OG post???

But I have seen here differences in % from just that...one source citing the THC-A and another the equiv THC.

 

[invertedisdead]

Ah, I see.

How do you know its distillate? I don't see any reference to such in the test doc or the OG post???

But I have seen here differences in % from just that...one source citing the THC-A and another the equiv THC.

I've had lots of Raw Garden live resin sauce and cartridges, for the carts they distill their live resin sauce for terpenes and cannabinoids and reintroduce them. It's actually a really smart/interesting approach because by starting with live resin sauce first, they are able to bypass ethanol winterization and other processing techniques typically needed when refining "crude" into distillate.

 

[Tranquility]

Are you sure it lists THC and not THC-A? I believe converting one to another deducts like 17% and maybe that is the source of the diff?

The lab report I linked has results for 11 cannabinoids, including THCa. (Which was negligible.)