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Cannabis Testing
QAS has been licensed by Health Canada since 2019 to provide Cannabis testing services, in addition QAS has obtained Standards Council of Canada (SCC) accreditation to ISO/IEC17025:2017 for its Cannabis testing methods.
With competitive pricing and fast turnarounds that we actually meet, let us support your growth and take the stress out of compliance.
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Potency/Cannabinoids
QAS offers two tests to assess the strength and cannabinoids present in your products. Our extraction procedures ensure that you get the highest result possible from your product.
External assessment of both the technical aspects of the method and indeed the validation thereof, provide you with confidence that you are indeed getting the correct result from your product. We do not “inflate” or “bump up” results, as is a problematic practice in the cannabis industry. If you get a result of 28% Total THC, that is what is in there! Our potency test is accredited to ISO/IEC17025:2017 by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) as are our other Cannabis tests.
We also understand the need for Potency results for decision making, labelling and other production process matters, to that end we offer Rush testing as well as routine 4-5 day turnaround. More importantly we actually meet our turnaround commitments! We also report results when they are available rather than waiting the full agreed turnaround, if you requested 4-5 day standard turnaround and the results are available on day 3, we report them.
Our standard potency method Includes Δ 9 -THC, Δ 8 -THC, THCA, CBD, CBDA, CBN & CBNA
Our Cannabinoids method Includes Δ 9 -THC, Δ 8 -THC, THCA, THCV, CBD, CBDA, CBN, CBNA, CBC, CBG & CBGA
Terpenes
Terpenes are important naturally occurring compounds responsible for the aroma of the cannabis plant and products. QAS uses GC-MS (Gas Chromatography with Mass Selective Detector) to determine terpenes in Cannabis. Many laboratories use HS-GC-FID (Headspace Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionisation Detector). The reason we do not use Headspace Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionisation Detector is twofold. Firstly Headspace is not suited to the heavier weight terpenes and as such discrimination occurs whereby there is a bias towards more volatile terpenes. This means you may get good results for terpenes like alpha-Pinene but poor results for Caryophyllene. Secondly the Flame ionisation detector does not allow for the accurate identification of peaks in the sample, this can lead to both missing and misidentifying terpenes. QAS uses this Gold Standard approach of GC-MS to provide high quality terpene data to support your decision making and product quality. This test is Accredited to ISO/IEC17025:2017
Currently QAS offers 62 terpenes in our standard terpene test. Available on rush as well as standard turnaround, get the most you can out of your product.
Microbiology
Pathogenic contamination of cannabis products is naturally not desirable and can present a risk to consumers. QAS is able to offer an ISO/IEC17025:2017 accredited service for testing the pathogens required by Health Canada as well as the quantitative tests for Yeast & Mold and Total Aerobic Count.
QAS uses plating for these tests and is able to offer the full 5 day test to comply with USP/EP methods, an alternative plate is available for Yeast & Mold that provides a result in 3 days. This can speed up the time taken for testing significantly, Health Canada accept and recognise this plating technique as valid. Cost effective, accurate and timely, let us provide results you can rely on.
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Heavy Metals
Heavy metals are naturally occurring but can be present in higher levels in some cannabis products. QAS utilises state of art mass spectrometry technology to analyse Heavy Metals.
While Mercury (Hg), Lead (Pb), Arsenic (As) and Cadmium (Cd) are the standard four typically required, QAS is able to offer additional toxic metals in the same test. Tin, Copper, Nickel and others can be included in your Heavy Metal screen if required. The state of the art analytical instrumentation and processes used by QAS ensure that you do not get falsely high results. Again Mass Selective Detection is used to ensure accurate and reliable results. This test is Accredited to ISO/IEC17025:2017
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Aflatoxins
Aflatoxins are an area of concern and are a required contaminant test by Health Canada. There are many ways of testing for Aflatoxins but the Gold Standard is liquid chromatography with tandem mass selective detector (LC-MS-MS). Historically the testing was completed using liquid chromatography with post column derivatization and fluorescence detection.
To say this technique is troublesome is a significant understatement. Other techniques such as “dipstick” testing are available but none compare to the accuracy and certainty of LC-MS-MS. Make sure you don’t miss any aflatoxins in your product by using our state of the art testing protocol. The QAS Aflatoxin test uses LC-MS-MS and is accredited to ISO/IEC17025:2017.
Pesticides
QAS has a vast amount of experience in testing products for pesticide residues, including the foundation of a specialist pesticide residue testing laboratory in the EU. This experience, in combination with state of the art instrumentation, allows us to offer the full list of Health Canada Pesticides in a timely manner at a very reasonable cost.
We are able to meet the full list of Health Canada LOQs and have been accredited for this test to ISO/IEC17025:2017. We understand pesticide residue testing, let us help make your pesticide residue testing program painless and cost effective.
Residual Solvents
Health Canada requires all processed products to be assessed against a list of residual solvents. QAS uses Headspace Gas Chromatography with Mass Selective detection (HS-GC-MS). This is the Gold Standard for volatiles analysis. Using Mass Selective detection ensures that there are no false positives.
Flame Ionisation Detectors are commonly used for this purpose but they are unable to distinguish between compounds that show up to verify that they are indeed the target compound.
This can lead to false positives and put your product sales in jeopardy. QAS is able to offer the full list of Health Canada Residual Solvents as well as an unknown screen to assess any other solvents that may be present. QAS is accredited to ISO/IEC17025:2017 for this test.
Physical Tests
QAS offers timely and cost effective physical testing for Moisture (ISO/IEC17025:2017 Accredited), Foreign Matter and Water Activity.
Use these tests to evaluate your product for potential areas of improvement and spoilage.
With our Foreign Matter test the sample is examined in multiple ways to ensure that the product has no signs of spoilage or indeed contamination.
Unknowns
Cannabis and cannabis products can be tested for other contaminants besides those mandated by Health Canada. These tests are able to detect a huge range of organic contaminants both volatile and non-volatile.
Contaminants such as pesticides and other toxins are also detectable using this state of the art technique.
QAS utilises LC-QTOF, GCMS and HS-GCMS to determine unknown contaminants in cannabis and cannabis products.
These analytical techniques are considered to be the Gold Standard for this type of work.
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To find out more, contact us for a full listing and pricing.