Imagine if you bought a bottle of ketchup that had lots of sugar in it one time, but none when you bought the same brand another time—and yet the ingredients list on the label stayed the same. Weird and scary, right? Luckily that doesn’t happen, because food products are regulated by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA’s rules ensure that products are made properly and are tested for safety and quality—and that they meet those standards every time, with each and every batch.
Unfortunately, there are no such guidelines for manufacturing CBD-based products, because the FDA has yet to regulate this market. That means, sadly, that buying CBD can be a crapshoot. You might have a great experience one time, only to have the same product disappoint you another time. It’s frustrating—and possibly dangerous.
That’s why, from its beginnings, Caliper has always been a different kind of CBD company. “We have a culture of quality in everything we do,” explains Petros Levis, Vice President and Director of Manufacturing & Quality.
Buying CBD in today’s market can be a crapshoot. That’s why we have a culture of quality in everything we do.
“We live that culture every day, in the way we do things,” adds Paige Appleton, Caliper’s Quality Assurance Manager. “We have a process of multiple checks and balances to make sure our products are always high quality, and always consistent.”
Both Petros and Paige forged their careers at some of the world’s leading consumer products companies, where top-notch quality control and manufacturing processes are par for the course. They bring that same rigor to their work at Caliper, where they’ve designed and implemented some of the strongest quality and safety procedures in the industry.
Here are their thoughts on the chaotic CBD marketplace—and what they’re doing to make sure Caliper products always live up to their promises.
Keeping up with (and exceeding) state standards
Without federal oversight, state laws governing cannabinoid products can be “a mess, because every state has its own rules,” Petros admits. “So at Caliper, we chose not to just make our own rules, but to use the ones everyone believes in: CFR 21.” That stands for Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which governs food and drug products in the United States and serves as the FDA’s standards for enforcement.
Treating our CBD products like food—and subjecting them to the rigorous standards regulating food—makes sense, he explains. “Anything that goes into our mouth is food, so we opt to follow the same guidelines that a food product would.”
Manufacturing with integrity, and testing relentlessly
The high quality of Caliper products starts with our choice to comply with current Good Manufacturing Processes (cGMPs)—required by the US Food & Drug Administration for all food manufacturers, but technically, not always required for a CBD company. Caliper has always passed cGMPs with exceptionally high scores, Paige notes, “and we’re also building to comply with GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) standards. We’ve elected to have this level of quality, going above and beyond expectations.”
We also subject our products to testing at all stages of production, to make sure they meet the highest food safety standards and consistent quality. Even though testing requirements differ from state to state, “we do our due diligence to ensure that our processes meet or exceed the requirements set by regulatory agencies across the country,” says Paige. That includes tight testing standards to detect any presence of heavy metals, residual solvents, pesticide residues, mycotoxins and pathogenic microbes, “and we only source from ingredient suppliers that follow the same principles we do,” she adds. “We know what goes into our products.”
We do our due diligence to ensure that our processes meet or exceed the requirements set by regulatory agencies across the country…We know what goes into our products.
Labeling with full transparency
CBD product labels should be simple: What you see should be what you get. But sadly, that isn’t always the case. “Nationally, there are no standards for labeling in the cannabinoid space,” Paige laments. Being a food scientist, she’s seen plenty of product labels she knows are “just wrong—they don’t make sense.” For example, on a cookie label, “butter can’t be the last ingredient!” She’s also troubled by ambiguous terms on labels, such as “broad spectrum,” which has no federal standard of definition. “How do you know what cannabinoids are in that spectrum, and whether or not all of them are listed?”
At Caliper, “we believe in transparency,” says Petros. “Our labels contain full information about what is in each and every product. CFR 21 regulations require that anything that contributes to the flavor and functionality of a product must be declared, so that’s what we do.”
Put a CBD product to the test: Just try a CBD product again and again. If you don’t get a consistent experience every time, you’re not getting a quality product.
The diligence Petros and Paige bring to their work means that you can always choose our Caliper CBD dissolvable powder and Caliper CBD Swiftsticks with confidence. As for the other CBD products out there? Put them to the test yourself, advises Petros. “Just try a product again and again. If you don’t get a consistent experience every time, you’re not getting a quality product. It’s just that simple.”
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