Cannabis Quality Assurance (CQA) Inc. is a certification agency, independent of the cannabis industry. CQA’s mission is to provide cannabis producers and consumers with a simple way to identify quality. 

Our Advisory and Standards Development Committees are composed of industry professionals and passionate consumers who understand the process and importance of quality from seed to sale to smoke (or whatever the preferred method may be). We are not an industry association, which allows us to maintain our level of independence.

CQA relies on independent and anonymous lab testing to analyze quantitative criteria, and a skilled tasting panel to provide qualitative sensory analytics. This combined application ensures that only products from licensed producers who meet the established measures are eligible for CQA certification, holding the cannabis industry to a higher standard of quality. It is anticipated that only the top 20% of cannabis products will receive CQA certification.

Testing and qualitative evaluation are performed using a double-blind process, where both the labs and the members of the CQA tasting panel are unaware of the producer and name of the product being submitted for certification.

CQA integrates DNA Genotyping to its sensory analysis and lab testing to profile a particular product and to identify multivariate associations underlying quality indicators and provide comparative information to the Public as well to LPs and nurseries.

CQA benefits from a cannabis analysis database as well as having acquired a selected third party cannabis DNA Genotyping database.

We believe that greater transparency in quality evaluation will highlight the top quality products and will empower consumers to select the best products on the market.