How to Find High-Quality Hemp Products

Thanks to the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized industrial hemp, the hemp product market has skyrocketed. However, buyer beware. The hemp market is largely unregulated, leaving consumers at risk of purchasing low-quality and potentially unsafe products.

With so many options on store shelves, consumers are rolling the dice when it comes to the hemp products they use unless they are purchasing from a reputable and trusted source.

If you’ve spent any time searching for hemp products or even hemp wholesale items, you’ve probably noticed that just about every brand claims to be selling the best products around.

Fortunately, there are a few ways to distinguish between the wheat and the chaff. We explore this in more detail below. 

4 Ways to Find High-Quality Hemp Products

Not all hemp products are created equal. The market is flooded with subpar brands selling inferior products that are unlikely to provide the benefits users seek.

For optimal results, it’s important to buy high-quality hemp products from reputable companies.

Here are four of the most important factors to consider when shopping for hemp products.

Where Is the Hemp Grown?

The source of the hemp matters big time because it gives you insight into many important components. Hemp plants easily absorb everything within the ground that they’re farmed and cultivated, including toxins.

Knowing where hemp comes from can tell you whether it’s sustainably farmed; is it organic, or could it contain pesticides, heavy metals, or other chemical fertilizers? Hemp plants grown in rich soil result in high-quality hemp products. On the contrary, hemp grown in land contaminated with metals like lead results in inferior hemp products that may even be unsafe. 

Homegrown, American-made hemp products are usually best because they are required to meet quality-control standards implemented by the USDA.  

Check for “Full Spectrum” or “Whole Plant Formulas”

The best hemp extracts are extracted from the hemp plant’s aerial parts (stems, flowers, and leaves). This ensures that the extract contains various beneficial compounds, including cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids, resulting in a whole plant (full-spectrum) formula.

In contrast, some brands choose to create isolate formulas, most commonly CBD isolate products. This means that the product contains 90% pure CBD, with a few additional phytocannabinoids. All cannabinoids (other than CBD), fatty acids, and terpenes are removed from the extract.

Many experts believe full-spectrum hemp formulas to be more effective because they contain a blend of compounds that work together to provide enhanced effects. This phenomenon is known as the entourage effect. 

Does the Company Provide Certificates of Analysis (CoAs)

Reputable companies send their hemp products to an independent laboratory to test the contents of the products. The lab reports, also called Certificates of Analysis (CoA’s), should confirm what’s in the product and in what quantities. But also importantly, lab reports must verify that the product is free of pesticides, heavy metals, and other harmful substances.

If lab reports are not available for customers to view, it’s a big red flag. Typically, the CoA should be readily accessible to anyone visiting the website to access. If you purchase the product in-store, there should be a QR code to scan that will redirect you to the site. You can email the company to request it if it's not available, but this lack of transparency already raises some questions.

It’s also important to check when the lab testing was done; if it was done more than a year ago, consider the test invalid. Lab testing should be done regularly, preferably for each product batch.

Customer Reviews and Testimonials

One of the best ways to gauge the quality of any product is to see what other customers are saying about it. 

However, you can’t always trust what you read directly on a company’s website because they may be fabricating reviews. Third-party review sites like Trustpilot are a more reliable source for honest and accurate reviews. 

Final Thoughts on Finding High-Quality Hemp Products