Quality Assurance: Staying Ahead of Enforcement

May 23, 2023
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Every week, we see failed testing across the industry. Whether you were the failure or someone else was along the supply chain, a failure is costly and impacts everyone. 

As cannabis markets continue to mature and regulations become more sophisticated, compliance and product safety are paramount concerns for businesses. Quality assurance plays a crucial role in ensuring that cannabis products are safe for consumption and they meet regulatory requirements. Cannabis quality and compliance are synonymous with businesses managing testing and product safety comprehensively and efficiently.

Testing cannabis products for various contaminants—pesticides, heavy metals, and microbiological agents—is essential. By regularly testing products, cannabis businesses must ensure that they are not putting consumers at risk. There are even incentives to validate SOP processes to test less often – and save businesses money.  

Another important aspect of quality assurance is sampling. Cannabis businesses sample their products to ensure safety and compliance at different process stages. However, this process can be complex, costly, and time-consuming, demanding extra training and tools to select, manage, and track samples.

However, many businesses are failing to comply with these standards or choosing to cut corners and costs on testing. Others manipulate samples to influence the testing process, and even testing labs are being enforced for manipulating results for more money. This is leading to heavier enforcement by regulatory agencies across the board in an effort to protect public safety and ensure integrity in the testing process.

Unfortunately, violations of product safety regulations are not uncommon in the cannabis industry. Whether due to negligence or intentional wrongdoing, these violations can result in serious consequences for businesses; including fines, legal action, and damage to their reputation. iComply is staying busy helping businesses mitigate their risk of non-compliance by managing their compliance activities in a centralized and organized way as it relates to quality, sampling, and testing.

Ultimately, robust quality assurance ensures compliance in the cannabis industry, offering safe consumer products.”


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