Kaycha Labs is a leading provider of innovative Cannabis testing technologies and methods. We perform product testing to help you stay compliant with state and federal regulations, you can count on us to fulfill all your testing needs. We provide comprehensive cannabis testing for potency, homogeneity, heavy metals, microbial contamination, mycotoxins, residual solvents, terpenes, and pesticides. Have a custom testing need? Or have a specific issue with your product? Kaycha Labs has you covered.
Cannabis is medicine. Medicine needs to be precise. Precise labeling leads to customer trust and loyalty, and patients medicating with cannabinoids need accurate cannabinoid concentration information levels in order to effectively treat their illnesses and safely consume recreational products.
Kaycha uses High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) that goes beyond testing normal potency levels by providing detailed cannabinoid profiling across fourteen other components including CBD, CBL, THC isomers, and CBN. All potency tests are validated by the company’s cannabis certification program that exceeds AOAC, WHO, and all State-testing requirements.
Matrix: Flowers/Plants, Derivative Products (concentrates), Infused Products, and Edibles
Terpenes are aroma and taste molecules that produce the characteristic smells and flavors of flowers, herbs, and spices. These isoprenoid molecules are also the essential medicinal biosynthetic building blocks for various phytochemicals including THCA, which can influence the overall THC homeopathic effect.
Kaycha uses gas chromatography (GC) to identify and quantify 28 distinct terpene analytes providing consumers with information to distinguish and choose products that taste and smell best to them.
Matrix: Flowers/Plants, Derivative Products, Infused Products, and Edibles
Pesticides are inherently dangerous molecules. That’s why they are used, to kill microorganisms and other plant pests. The downside of this use, however, is carryover onto final products. Pesticides commonly used in cannabis cultivation are potentially dangerous and pose great health risks – the greatest danger occurring with chronic exposure to pesticide residue which is toxic at high levels and harmful at lower doses. Potentially harmful chemicals include: insecticides, fungicides, plant growth regulators, and other compounds.
Kaycha Labs uses liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for full quantitation of 67 different analytes, ensuring our procedures detect ultra-low amounts of pesticides keeping users safe and healthy.
Matrix: Flowers/Plants, Derivative Products, Infused Products, and Edibles
Measuring heavy metal contamination is important for all flower, water, food and solvent-based products. Many states have set conservative limits per gram of product for lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury as these compounds are very toxic to humans.
Kaycha Labs tests for heavy metal contamination using Inductively Coupled Plasma spectrometry with mass spectrometric detection (ICP-MS). Our approach enables very sensitive analysis for metals at low concentrations in the parts per billion ensuring your products are safe to consume.
Matrix: Derivative Products, Infused Products, and Edibles
To produce highly-concentrated oils and waxes, solvents such as acetone, ethanol and butane are used to extract cannabinoids and terpenes from marijuana and hemp plant material. These harmful solvents must then be removed from final products to ensure they do not pose serious health risks when inhaled or ingested.
Kaycha uses Gas Chromatography with Mass Spectrometry detection and headspace autosampling to quantify harmful solvents, impurities, or adulterants down to sub parts-per-million (PPM) concentrations.
Matrix: Derivative Products, Infused Products, and Edibles
Microorganisms and bacteria are ubiquitous in our world. They often can grow under the same conditions as cannabis and if consumed, these contaminants could lead to serious illness.
Kaycha’s testing process uses qPCR and confirmatory plating to test for bacteria and fungi.
This is accomplished by extracting community DNA samples and running the purified DNA against known DNA sequences (primers) to identify specific bacterial and fungal species.
Kaycha also uses plating to screen for levels of total yeasts and molds, total coliforms, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella enterica, total aerobic bacteria, and bile-tolerant gram-negative (BTGN) (including Enterobacteriaceae).
Matrix: Flowers/Plants, Derivative Products, Infused Products, and Edibles
The warm, wet conditions ideal for growing cannabis are also conducive to the growth of molds and fungi, many of which cannot be seen by the naked eye but are highly dangerous because they can produce small molecules called mycotoxins (afla and ochra toxins) which are very toxic to humans. Even if the molds and fungi have been killed, the mycotoxins can still be present and dangerous.
Kaycha labs uses liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for full quantitation of four aflatoxins and ochratoxin A.
Matrix: Flowers/Plants, Derivative Products, Infused Products, and Edibles
Vitamin E acetate, vegetable glycerol, propylene glycol and other lipids are substances that can upset the natural function of surfactants protecting the lungs and lead to lipid accumulation in the lungs, if not full-blown lipid pneumonia. In 2019, a representative of the CDC reported a total of 2,506 hospitalizations and 54 deaths that were likely associated with the presence of Vitamin E Acetate in e-cigarettes and vaping products (vaping associated lung injury).
Kaycha uses combinations of liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection and gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection to detect these lipids. Many other adulterants and viscosity modifying agents can also be measured using our techniques.
Matrix: Vape Oils, Derivative Products
Macro-nutrients, like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, are mineral elements that plants need in relatively large quantities to thrive. Micronutrients, such as silicone, calcium, and molybdenum, are also essential for plant growth, although at much lower concentrations. When plants are exhibiting macro and micronutrient levels that are too high, or too low, cultivators don’t achieve optimal harvest yields and underperform their competitors; and in a worst case scenario, deficient nutrient content can result in low THC potency crops.
Kaycha uses Inductively Coupled Plasmas to measure the macro and micronutrient levels of cannabis tissues so that cultivators can more effectively monitor the health of future crops.
Matrix: Flowers/Plants, soil, water, nutrient mixes.
Crop contamination, often, results in crop failures and economic loss.
Kaycha helps growers safeguard against contamination by providing an array of tests. These tests contain specific sequences that will detect a wide range of organisms known to be either environmental contaminants or pathogens when screened against purified DNA. Once contaminants and nutritional deficiencies are identified, protocols to remove contaminants or add chemical elements essential to plant nutrition, growth and survival can be introduced.
Matrix: Flowers/Plants
Over time, temperature, lighting, air, and humidity can affect the quality and degrade cannabis and hemp. Understanding the stability of a product or a material is an important part of product development and management.
Kaycha has testing facilities which conduct WHO compliant stability and shelf-life studies, as well as the corresponding analytical testing to evaluate the effects of storage conditions. Testing methods vary and can involve simple titration, pH Analysis, HPLC, GCMS, LCMS, qPCR, microbial analyses, and ICPMS providing customers with analytics and data relating to: material degradation, pharmaceutical API stability, consumer product active ingredient stability, shelf life assessment, packaging integrity evaluation, and raw material and chemical stability.
Matrix: Flowers/Plants, Derivative Products, Infused Products, and Edibles
Kaycha Labs is a leading provider of stability testing services and accelerated stability studies for Cannabis products.
Understanding the stability of a product or material against the effects of time, temperature and/or humidity is an important part of product development. While this is vital to the pharmaceutical industry, it is of equal importance to the consumer product, food, and beverage industries. Kaycha Labs has the testing facilities to safely conduct the desired stability or shelf-life study, as well as the corresponding analytical testing to evaluate the effects of the storage conditions.
We perform stability studies and accelerated stability testing on many different products and materials, and under varied storage conditions. Whether you require long term stability storage conditions or accelerated storage conditions, Kaycha Labs has experience in performing stability testing for cannabis products under cGMP and GLP requirements and guidelines. We can develop methods for testing stability samples, or follow prescribed testing procedures such as US Pharmacopeia and EPA OPPTS requirements. Kaycha Labs has many different capabilities for storage stability testing. Whether it is a simple titration, corrosion evaluation, and pH determination to evaluate changes in an active ingredient over time; or more complex testing requiring HPLC, GCMS, LCMS, qPCR and ICPMS to determine the presence of impurities or leachable components, we can meet your testing needs.
Shelf life is defined as the time necessary for CBD to degrade to 90% of its original concentration. Hemp products will remain stable when stored under recommended storage conditions. Thus, an expiration date is the date beyond which it is predicted that the product may no longer retain fitness for use.
Vitamin E acetate, vegetable glycerol, propylene glycol and other lipids are substances that can upset the natural function of surfactants protecting the lungs and lead to lipid accumulation in the lungs, if not full-blown lipid pneumonia. In 2019, a representative of the CDC reported a total of 2,506 hospitalizations and 54 deaths that were likely associated with the presence of Vitamin E Acetate in e-cigarettes and vaping products (vaping associated lung injury).
Kaycha uses combinations of liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection and gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection to detect these lipids. Many other adulterants and viscosity modifying agents can also be measured using our techniques.
United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
International Standards Organization (ISO)
Good Laboratory Practice (GLP)
United States Pharmacopeia (USP)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Food Safety and Inspection Services
Association of Analytical Communities (AOAC)
Oregon Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ORELAP)
CANNABIS TESTING
