Cannabis beverage emulsions, just like all other food and beverage products, undergo some sort of stability testing in order to maintain a level of quality that will be passed along to customer. The shelf integrity of these products are also critical over time as oils can break out from their emulsion matrix and produce what is now a heterogeneous product, and therefore unappealing to an end user. Additionally, since these cannabis products contain a substances that are to be treated like pharmaceutical drugs, the risk of potency variances throughout the areas of a storage container via particle migration can surface. This lack of homogeneity can cause different regions of the product to contain a higher percentage of the drug than another. The regulation of this is critical and current testing in the HPLC field is not uniform across the board and the validity of the results can be subject for debate. The destabilizations of these formulations are rooted in the ability of particles to migrate and change size at various vertical positions inside of a storage container. Such particle characteristics can be quantified by utilizing Multiple Light Scattering, where the scattering intensity of an incident light source into a concentrated sample can provide information on the particle size and concentration at a given position within the sample. When this light source is appended to a mobile reading head containing multiple light detectors at different incident angles around the sample container the kinetics of sedimentation, clarification, and flocculation can be easily and clearly observed. In addition, this light scattering data can be used to provide information into local concentration profiles, redispersion analysis of previously-destabilized samples, and overall dispersion quality of the media. Such information can be used for formulation optimization, modification of existing products, and predicting the shelf life of these formulations. Specifically, data will be shown of various cannabis beverage emulsions over a 9-month period as to prove the stability and potency consistency of the products as they age on a shelf. Optimally, this method can be used throughout the industry to have a standard, high-resolution testing method for such emulsions.

Homogeneity, formulation, and shelf life of cannabis-infused beverage emulsions

2019 Fall National Meeting

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