Nutrasource Diagnostics adds cannabis test to capabilities

Cannabis has been approved on the medical level in Canada, and hemp ingredients have found their way into many products in the United States, including CBD-containing products targeting general well being, inflammation reduction, health sleep support, and pain relief. NutraSource’s new test will use its human skin and artificial skin models to test for absorption in topical ingredients using hemp derivatives.

“We have a very specific niche, a very specific skill set in this testing,​”​ Will Rowe, CEO of Nutrasource told NutraIngredients-USA. “We look at the in vitro release using cadaver skin and synthetic skin for topical gels, creams and ointments for pain relief and other indications.​”​

The test could be of benefit to hemp ingredient suppliers, who may be agnostic when it comes to where their ingredients end up, whether in a food, a beverage, a supplement or in a topical product, which could be classified as an OTC drug or a cosmetic.

Nutrasource last year paired with Whole Foods Markets to offer a non-GMO test specific to supplements. Most certification schemes for GMOs came from the food space, where most products have many fewer ingredients than a typical dietary supplement.

That test, called the IGEN Program, is based on a propriety test the company has developed to look for GMO proteins in the finished product. The base level looks just at what’s in the bottle; Tier 2 would also test the major ingredients individually and Tier 3, which corresponds to the level of GMO-free certainty supplied by a Non-GMO Project Verified certification, would look deeper into the antecedents of ingredients and excipients as necessary to verify the non GMO status.