Cannabis Authenticity & Purity Standard Assures Consistent Product Quality

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, July 14, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On June 23, 2020, Purity-IQ Inc. announced the launch of the Global Cannabis Registry, which also forms part of its voluntary Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) compliance requirements for third-party certification in the Cannabis Authenticity and Purity Standard (CAPS) and certification program.

Over 25 stakeholders from various cannabis industry sectors in Canada, USA and the EU, participated in the recent CAPS Steering Committee Session to hear more about the need for standardized safety and quality measures throughout the medicinal, edible, beverage, topical and recreational cannabis product supply chain.  

Cannabis and hemp are natural products increasingly consumed for their perceived health benefits by those seeking alternative nutrition and medicine to deal with common ailments such as chronic pain, anxiety, infections, and compromised immunity. In many jurisdictions where these products are legally available, government regulations tend to stipulate only the basic safety requirements. In most other established industry sectors, brands, retailers, and consumers demand far more than the minimum regulatory requirements and usually impose more rigorous safety and quality brand protection measures from their suppliers.

During the Steering Committee session, Dr. Steven Newmaster, Director of the NHP Research Alliance at the University of Guelph presented the unique and innovative science elements. "As part of the Medical Cannabis by Shoppers proof of concept, we are now able to uniquely identify a given strain / cultivar based on both metabolite profiles using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and DNA chip bioinformatics. The data analytics form a unique cultivar IP 'Fingerprint' in the Purity-IQ Global Cannabis Registry, which can be used to verify 'batch-to-batch' consistency in on-going quality assurance programs," states Dr. Newmaster. 

Steering Committee participants also interacted with presenters such as Roger Muse, a Vice President at the ANSI American National Accreditation Board (ANAB), who spoke about the value of third-party accreditation, standards, and testing methods specifically designed for the cannabis industry. "We are excited to be working with Purity-IQ whose CAPS third-party certification will combine requirements for ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation process together with ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory accreditation. As a condition for doing business, the CAPS certification process will provide brands and specifiers with much needed safety and consistency assurances."

The Purity-IQ Global Cannabis Registry will serve to satisfy an industry need for tracking and tracing cannabis and hemp products within the supply chain. With proper permissions and securities, the Global Cannabis Registry will routinely be pushing scientifically validated "Fingerprint" data into trusted data sources and blockchain partners. The Global Cannabis Registry continues to be enabled with key strategic industry partners, such as Lighthouse Genomics Inc., High North Inc., and German-based Bruker Corporation.

"The need to scientifically identify genomic and chemical attributes as a form of benchmarking all cannabis-based inputs prior to performing clinical trials is of monumental importance," states Paul Valder, Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer for Purity-IQ. "Today we have the capability to process and register cultivars from legal producers and sellers to create a unique 'Fingerprint' designed to populate the Global Cannabis Registry for easy reference purposes. Within weeks Purity-IQ will also finalize and provide Standard Operating Procedures for product stability testing at Purity-IQ recognized commercial laboratories."

About

Purity-IQ Incorporated
Purity-IQ is a Canadian biotechnology company based in Mississauga, Ontario. It is committed to innovation in research and development and in the commercialization of practical and affordable validated quality assurance standards and tools, designed to further support brand product claims related to identity, authenticity, and purity. Purity-IQ focuses on commodities and inputs for the food, drug, beverage, natural health products and cannabis industries.   

NHP Research Alliance
The Natural Health Product (NHP) Research Alliance is a collaboration between industry and the University of Guelph designed to improve the production of authentic products, protect biodiversity, and ensure the sustainability and growth of the NHP industry. Under the direction of Dr. Steven Newmaster, a recognized global leader in authentication, and working closely with leading industry partners, the alliance uses novel molecular and NMR diagnostic tools to tackle the issue of product and ingredient authentication.