Significance and Use
5.1 The analysis and reporting of pesticide content in all forms of cannabis raw material that is grown or processed or both, with the intent of ingestion or consumption, is required to address health and safety concerns, satisfy testing and labeling requirements, and meet the regulatory guidelines of various jurisdictions where cannabis has been legalized for ingestion or consumption for medicinal or recreational purposes, or both. This test method is useful in providing quantitative results for the analytes listed in Table 1, which is a subset of the pesticide testing requirements found in regulatory documents for cannabis, not limited to and including Canada, many U.S. states where legalization has occurred, and the European Pharmacopeia (1-4). This test method may be appropriate for additional pesticide and growth regulator analytes, which may be added to those of Table 1 provided validation is performed in accordance with Practice D8282. Analytes may be removed from Table 1 without additional validation.
Scope
1.1 This test method allows for the concentration determination of the pesticides listed in Table 1 and shall apply to any dried raw material from a cannabis plant (Note 1, Note 2) regardless of the type of cannabis plant from which it was derived (1, 2).2 For the sake of brevity, the term “cannabis” shall be used from now on to refer to any type of cannabis plant including those which can be classified as hemp. The procedure includes sub-sampling a ground, homogenous sample, liquid-solid extraction with acetonitrile:acetic acid (100:1, v:v), solid phase extraction with C18 SPE media, dilution in 3 mM ammonium formate in water with 0.1 % formic acid and 3 mM ammonium formate in methanol with 0.02 % formic acid in a 20:80 ratio (v:v) and analysis by LC-MS/MS. This procedure encompasses the entire process from sample preparation to analyte quantitation encompassing a range of 0.005 µg/g to 0.500 µg/g.
Note 1: For this test method, dried raw material from a cannabis plant includes one or more of inflorescence, leaves, or stems.
Note 2: Certain jurisdictions or regulations may require specific parts of the plant to be included or excluded for analysis and those regulations will take precedence for the selection of plant parts.
1.2 Units—The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as standard. No other units of measurement are included in this standard.
1.3 Table 1 lists the analytes measured by this test method.
1.4 No recommendations found within this test method shall preclude observance of federal, state, or local regulations, which may be more restrictive or have different requirements.
1.5 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety, health, and environmental practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.
1.6 This international standard was developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles on standardization established in the Decision on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations issued by the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee.
