The CQA information and certifications will be available on the CQA App, a free application to download and there are no in-app purchase options. The CQA App is meant to be accessible to all cannabis consumers who want a guarantee of quality when making a purchase. CQA information will also be made available at licensed cannabis retailers.

The CQA seal simplifies the purchasing process by allowing consumers to easily identify products that meet a high-level of quality based on independent and anonymous lab testing and sensory evaluation by the CQA tasting panel, comprising over 50 members across Canada, each member confidentially testing unbranded products.

The Tasters selected to analyse a product submitted for certification report on a variety of characteristics of the sample and each Taster’s evaluation of its quality on several pre-determined sensory criteria using detailed standards and tasting process protocols, using standardized CQA testing equipment.. The Tasting Panel Report is a compendium of the Tasters Reports, compiled by CQA staff for a ‘fail or pass’ grade.

CQA integrates sensory analysis and lab testing to profile a particular product, to the CQA DNA Genotyping services to identify multivariate associations underlying quality indicators and provide comparative information to the consumer (as well to licensed producers and nurseries).

CQA DNA Genotyping allows correlation of the plant’s chemical composition with outcomes from the lab testing and our blind tasting panel.

CQA benefits from a cannabis DNA analysis database as well as having acquired a selected third party cannabis DNA Genotyping database. Every sample tested is added to the CQA database. This allows a proximity of samples to reference cultivars.

An efficient comparison of cultivars, providing visualization of the differences and similarities between all individuals within a population, allows to identify clusters of high relatedness, membership within cannabis subpopulations and genetic outliers. Clones are revealed and cultivars ranked by genetic stability, shared ancestry and other key metrics.

Lastly, genomic data offers a unique traceability means, enabling to unique barcodes to be generate to the level of individual clones and their ability to identify SKUs in the market with the same name that are not identical clones but rather sibling or closely related albeit not identical accessions unique to individual producers.