Cannabis-infused or cannabis-infused beverages are a hot commodity these days, but the production process isn’t as straightforward as making other beverages like alcoholic beverages or sodas.

The production of cannabinoid-infused beverages is more sophisticated and requires great care to ensure that the beverages meet quality targets during and after production retail.

Here are the key things you must consider if you want to start using cannabinoids.

Choose the right partner.

Infusing a beverage with cannabinoids may be the most important stage of product development, but unfortunately, it’s also the least known.

If you’re not going to do this in-house, partnering with a company that has extensive experience in this step is key.

But when choosing a copacker, many brand owners overlook key processing parameters that can lead to a lack of oversight and can seriously affect the quality of the finished beverage and harm it Sales volume.

Know your tags

As the cannabis beverage industry matures, cannabinoid label claims must be accurate and brands must know their true product shelf life.

Failure to address these handling issues could lead to regulatory scrutiny by state and local authorities and customer dissatisfaction due to inconsistent functional effects.

Prioritize critical process parameters

Selecting the appropriate key process parameters (eg, total package oxygen, filtration, pasteurization, packaging, etc.) and avoiding common defects in the manufacturing process are critical to success.

Proper identification of these parameters requires direct experience in developing and commercializing cannabis/cannabis infusion products, as well as a deep understanding of formulation and instability/stability-promoting phenomena.

Trial production is the key

Any beverage produced for consumption requires a set of specifications to ensure batch-to-batch consistency and compliance with applicable regulations.

For non-infusion beverages (such as soda), these specifications focus on factors such as taste, acidity, etc.

However, that obey Cannabinoid-infused beverages are more complex than non-cannabinoid-infused beverages.

An infused beverage, along with other typical standard sizes, is required to provide the amount of cannabinoids listed on the product label, usually within a narrow range.

Given the complexity of converting cannabinoids into water-soluble forms, setting the right processing parameters to confidently and repeatably achieve the above specifications is critical for cannabis beverages.

Therefore, the importance of trial production.

Failure to properly scale up the production process prior to commercialization can result in significant financial and environmental damage due to the destruction of non-compliant products.

During successful pilot production, factors such as dosage inconsistencies, transfer losses, and losses from potential thermal treatments can be accurately characterized and used to model process deviations and/or corrections prior to large-scale commercial production.

The cannabis beverage industry is still evolving, and brands must emphasize labeling consistency to support a more legal cannabis industry as a whole.

By choosing a partner with experience in dealing with the complexities of the industry, your business will avoid the common mistakes that many face along the way and continue to produce compliant and high-quality cannabinoid beverages.

Nick Jackowetz is Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder Girona Laboratory. He previously led the formulation team at Canopy Growth, where Jackowetz helped create a disruptive cannabis-infused beverage industry for the Canadian market. Cirona Labs is a botanical ingredient company producing custom, natural, research-driven cannabis ingredients with superior bioavailability/efficacy, taste, appearance and stability. Dr. Jackowetz received a Bachelor of Science degree. PhD in Biomedical Toxicology and his Ph.D. in Biomedical Toxicology, University of Guelph, Canada. Ph.D. in Food Science from Cornell University.