The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
State may be getting second cannabis testing lab
Every legal cannabis product sold in Connecticut must be grown, produced and tested here. For a full year, there has been only a single cannabis testing lab in the state, but officials have confirmed a second lab may be opening soon, which some believe could get cannabis products on the shelves quicker as the market grows.
Laboratory AltaSci closed in March last year, and Department of Consumer Protection spokesperson Kaitlyn Krasselt said the lab’s license was changed to “inactive” soon after.
That left only Northeast Laboratories to test every cannabis product sold in Connecticut. Now Analytics Labs CT, an offshoot of a
Massachusetts-based laboratory, is in the process of opening up shop in Connecticut.
State filings show an address for Analytics Labs CT in Rocky Hill. Analytics Labs founder Tiffany Madru was unable to comment for this story. Northeast Laboratories did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Krasselt said a second laboratory would “allow for another option for cannabis establishments to have their products tested” and confirmed that Analytics Labs is currently going through the licensure process: “The laboratory applies, they submit site specific policies and procedures that are reviewed by the department, along with security plans, and the laboratory undergoes inspections.” There is no timeframe for that final licensure.
Rino Ferrarese, managing partner at Affinity Grow, one of only six operating cannabis cultivation facilities in the state, said a second lab will help maintain the health of the state’s cannabis industry.
“The launch of a second cannabis testing laboratory
in Connecticut is a positive development,” Ferrarese said. “It will offer operators expanded options for release testing, method development, and all the requisite monitoring and validation needed to sustain a healthy industry committed to meeting quality and safety standards.”
To conduct tests on cannabis in Connecticut, labs must have International Organization for Standardization (ISO) accreditation, and there are several accrediting bodies. Both Northeast Laboratories and Analytics Labs’ Massachusetts facility have been accredited by a company called PJLA Testing.
Ben Zachs, owner of Fine Fettle, said they have used Analytics Labs to test cannabis at their Massachusetts cannabis retail outlets. He said a second lab in the state would be “great, as more operators come online, which I hope is happening sooner rather than later on the cultivation side for throughput and speed.”
“They’re a really good lab in Massachusetts,” he said. “They’re fair, they’re honest, and I think having levels of control and accountability is always good.”
A representative sample of every cannabis product sold in Connecticut is tested for the levels of cannabinoids (the compounds that produce the feeling of being high) and terpenes, which give cannabis its smell and flavor. Tests also detail the presence of heavy metals, pesticides and mycotoxins, and a variety of microbes: Mold and yeast, salmonella, E. coli, listeria and aspergillus.
The state agreed at AltaSci’s request in 2020 to raise allowable yeast and mold levels in cannabis sold in Connecticut, a review of emails obtained through a freedom of information request showed. The state agreed to raise the total passing level of yeast and mold from 10,000 colony forming units per gram to 1 million per gram for the lab.