What is a Certificate of Analysis?

As with many other plant-based/plant-derived substances, cannabidiol (CBD) must fulfill certain requirements before it can be sold or shipped legally. One of the most important is a certificate of analysis (COA). If you are thinking about starting a CBD-related business, you may have heard of it, but what is a certificate of analysis? Why is it required? How do you get one?

The Legal Status of CBD

The 2018 Farm Bill reclassified hemp and removed it from the Controlled Substance Schedules used by the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Agency. However, despite no longer being illegal , hemp and hemp-derived CBD are still regulated, so there are requirements that you need to fulfill when selling or shipping it.

Generally speaking, your business must have licenses to grow, process, or sell CBD products, the THC content of your products must be 0.3% or less, your growers and suppliers must be operating legitimate, correctly licensed businesses, and your business must have documents that show the results of testing to verify the content (including, most importantly in this case, the amount of THC).