Bird notes three goals that can help producers overcome pitfalls: identifying a manufacturing director with experience in food production; increasing quality control testing of raw materials and finished products beyond the bare minimum compliance requirements; and establishing robust environmental monitoring programs.
He believes a singular standardized approach that incorporates many of the GMP principles from pertinent industries (dietary supplements, food, pharma), while establishing guidance specific to the cannabis industry, will help streamline how companies can manufacture safer products for consumers in the future.
Even with the potential for federal legalization of cannabis-infused foods in the future, many predict food safety regulations won’t change for what will become a larger market. “It would just mean much greater ease of manufacturing product in one central location with the ability to sell it across state lines,” Wilson says. “Scaling up in a central manufacturing facility would pose the same issues as any traditional food manufacturing facility in adhering to food safety regulations.”
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