Gentle Processing™ for Surviving and Thriving in the New Era of Legal Cannabis

An ongoing focus in 2019 for venture capital groups is Cannabis.  Now that it is legal in Canada and 10 states in the USA there is a rush to supply this new highly regulated market.  Companies like Aurora and Canopy in Canada and MedMen and Green Thumb Industries in the United States have $billions invested in this growing venture.

Throughout this year and for many years to come several new CO’s (new companies) will be popping up across North America called ‘grow ops’, looking to fulfill consumer demand.  They will engineer and design large greenhouses, anywhere from 1,850sqm/20,000sqft to 11,150sqm/120,000sqft which will provide year round production.  Each of the multi-million-dollar structures will set the blueprint for quality monitoring and production.

Since these groups are producing a consumer-based product, they must ensure QC (Quality Control) over their entire operation.  Each of these new CO’s must take steps to maintain employee and customer safety.  Programs accepted by Health Canada or the FDA such as HASAP do provide a clear way to document the entire process in case of recalls.  

Concerns of yeast and molds have risen due to the wet harvest of this commodity.  Cannabis undergoes testing for these, known as TYMC, which is measured by the quantity of colony forming units present on a cannabis sample.  Colony forming units, abbreviated as cfu, refer to individual colonies of yeast or mold.  A cfu is not necessarily a measure for individual cells or spores, as a colony may be formed from a single, or cluster, of cells or spores. 

Mold can proliferate quickly and efficiently, which can cause problems, particularly in an indoor grow environment.  Over two billion spores can be produced by a piece of mold roughly the size of a dime. That quantity of spores, evenly distributed over a large harvest, has the theoretical potential to contaminate 205Kg of product with over 10,000 cfu in every gram of that 205Kg’s.  This is true even if those spores have not germinated and the cannabis looks perfectly fine.

Gentle Processing™: Gentle Processing RF creates an oscillating electromagnetic field between two electrodes, which causes polar molecules (i.e. water present in microorganisms) to oscillate.  The rapid internal oscillation of the polar molecules generates heat volumetrically, killing targeted pathogens including yeast and mold.  This method has been proven by a decade of use in the food industry and will likely become the standard in large-scale cannabis facilities.

• Pros: Organic, non-toxic, non-ionizing, non-chemical based, avoids decarboxylation of acidic cannabinoids, does not cause potency loss, fast and efficient.
• Cons: Limited moisture and terpene loss.

Green applications such as Gentle Processing™ are the new industry standard in assuring a safe and healthier you.