Aurum Labs is the first Colorado lab to be fully certified by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to conduct all required compliance testing of industrial hemp products. The services include a pesticide screen of 102 analytes, which is the most expansive pesticide analysis of hemp and cannabis in the nation.
The comprehensive pesticide screen was an analytical challenge for any lab pursuing certification, especially within the accelerated timeline that the CDPHE demanded.
Pesticide analysis in cannabis is new, extremely difficult, and not like traditional dietary ingredient or agricultural product pesticide testing. The molecular structure of cannabinoids is so similar to pesticides that they create obstacles for proper analysis.
Even the most experienced analytical chemists have struggled with this arduous method development.
Aurum Labs utilizes new liquid chromatography and gas chromatography instrumentation, coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometers (LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS) to analyze 102 pesticides. The new method is a significant expansion from Aurum Lab's Colorado Cannabis pesticide method, where only 13 pesticides are analyzed. The new method is also more sensitive and selective, with pesticides detected at very low levels.
Currently, Aurum Labs is one of five certified hemp testing labs in the U.S. approved to perform this pesticide analysis and is the only independent, Colorado-based testing lab.
Colorado hemp producers have not been able to complete all compliance testing with a single Colorado lab until now.
