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By Tim Sprinkle
Jun 24, 2025
The ongoing expansion of the cannabis market has made it one of the fastest-growing industries, with double-digit growth predicted through 2030. With this type of growth, challenges can arise, and one of them is the issue of contamination.
Cannabis is a natural product and so contamination can and does happen, often through improper cultivation, processing, or storage of the plant. These contaminants can include everything from yeasts and mold to pesticides, heavy metals, solvents, and more, all of which pose potential health risks to consumers. For this reason, states are increasingly passing new legislation to regulate the care and handling of cannabis products.
To help cannabis cultivators, processors, and others in the industry remain compliant with these emerging regulations and reduce the risk of microbiological contamination of cannabis products, ASTM International’s committee on cannabis (D37) recently introduced the standard guide for techniques to lower microbial load of post-harvest inflorescence of cannabis and hemp (D8575). There are several techniques that can be used to help reduce microbial contamination after it has occurred. However, to date, there has been little guidance around which techniques are most effective and safe for use on cannabis and hemp plants. D8575 includes a list of the techniques that meet this specific need, based on similar efforts around food safety and decontamination, with an initial focus on post-harvest inflorescence of Cannabis sativa L. plants.
“Safety and legalization go hand in hand,” says Carly Bader, manager of science with cannabis testing firm, Willow Industries, and a D37 member. “There are certain microbes that are pathogenic, meaning they cause disease in humans, and just like with food, we need to test for specific contaminants and levels of contamination to determine if they are safe or not safe for consumption. So really, cannabis is catching up, and we have to make sure that this product is safe.”
The fact is, microbiological contamination is ubiquitous and yeast, mold, and bacteria are known contaminants of food and drug products, and an increasing number of states are requiring testing for these substances on cannabis products. Having a clearly defined way of lowering them to an acceptable level is critical to preventing economic losses while maintaining public and environmental health and safety related to cannabis consumption, particularly if regulations become more stringent as the legal market evolves.
READ MORE: Two Cannabis Standards You Should Know About
“Given that we have both the recreational side of cannabis as well as the medical side in many states, even more stringent regulations and safety precautions need to be taken for medical products,” Bader says. “People who are immunocompromised certainly can take less of a bioburden or contaminant burden than a healthy individual can.”
As cannabis and hemp plants are grown in soil, they might have mold or bacteria on them simply as a result of the cultivation process. Given that cannabis is often consumed as dried flower, it can’t be “washed” by traditional methods, presenting challenges to those interested in preventing contamination and remaining compliant with testing requirements. The guide addresses the many options available today, with the stated goal of informing consumers, as well as regulators and cultivators about their options for effective contamination prevention in cannabis products.
The challenge that D37 and the industry are facing is how to standardize this testing when every regulation is still handled on a state-by-state basis, with plenty of variability and potential differences in requirements.
“For now, it comes down to a lot of communication,” says Bader. “It is very hard to harmonize the industry at this point, but that's where ASTM comes in. We hope that by writing standards like D8575 we can help prepare people for what should be happening across borders so that they are ready for what comes next in preventing cannabis contamination.”
Tim Sprinkle is a freelance writer based in Colorado Springs, CO. He has written for Yahoo, The Street, and other websites.
