How cannabis products are tested and verified for the New York market

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CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — Cannabis dispensaries and delivery services have begun rolling out new products to thousands of customers in New York.

All of them are made from cannabis grown and processed within the Empire State but how do consumers know what they’re getting?

Is the item authentic? Or safe to consume?

As part of the state’s Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act laboratories have been licensed by the Office of Cannabis Management to make sure products are what they’re advertised as being.

Biotrax Testing on Harlem Road in Cheektowaga is one of those 15 independent labs currently licensed by the state to test cannabis products like raw flowers, vape cartridges, and other processed items.“These are live rosin gummies,” said Bill Nichols, Technical Director of Cannabis at Biotrax.

Nichols is holding a tray of passionfruit-flavored gummies that are destined for store shelves after passing a variety of tests.

That testing can be broken into two baskets Nichols explained: compliance and consulting.

Biotrax tests products and reports the results to make sure that items are properly labeled for potency and are free of any other harmful chemicals or microbes that you can’t see.

“Whether you're a cultivator trying to sell your whole flower to a dispensary or you're a processor that's making gummies or cartridges all of that is going to funnel through one of the 15 labs in NYS before it hits dispensary shelves,” said Nichols.

The testing methods and thresholds vary for each product depending on state guidelines.

Nichols said cannabis flower for example is heated up to evaporate any moisture in it and then the difference in mass is measured. Flower sold in New York has strict moisture requirements.“In NYS whole flower like this needs to 5 and 15% moisture,” Nichols said.

And wouldn’t you know, the sample he tested when he spoke to 2 On Your Side missed the mark by several tenths of a percent?

Other testing like high-pressure liquid chromatography or HPLC is used to determine product potency. A machine is loaded with samples in solution and compared to a control.

The chemical compounds detected by the machine are then graphed and labeled as their separate parts, for example, Delta-8 or Delta-9 THC.

Compliance also includes testing for microbes, fungi, salmonella, e-coli, and other things – all of which have their own tests.

“We're looking out for those pesticides you can't see those metals that the plant might have taken up that you can't see,” Nichols added.

The second testing basket involves working with cannabis growers and processors, who may be doing research and development and want a certain result. For example, a strain of cannabis with more relaxing effects compared to energizing.“We want to work with you to make sure you can get to where you want to go and we can facilitate that process with our results,” said Nichols.When all is said and done labs like Biotrax are in the middle man ensuring only safe and quality cannabis products make it on New York store shelves.Biotrax has worked with companies in the Hudson Valley, Syracuse, and the Capitol region but most of their work comes from growers and processors in Western New York.

“It's safety in the fact of actually getting someone get sick then there is also the safety of making sure that medicine, that cannabis is doing what's intended for that person,” Nichols said.

Business has been so good that Biotrax now plans to expand the cannabis side of their business. They also do food safety and environmental testing for various municipalities and businesses in Western New York.