Cannabis flowers are agricultural products that inherently exhibit variability in potency. As a result, Health Canada allows for a 15% tolerance range for licensed producers (LPs), who are expected to label their products according to the average tested value of representative samples.
To better understand the likelihood of Health Canada discovering any nonconformances resulting from mislabeled potency, we present a statistical analysis in the following tables, which account for three different relative standard deviations to capture variability across different flower types.
The tables provide information on the percentage of samples that fall within/out of the tolerance range, but the actual risks associated with mislabeling depend on Health Canada’s actions. Consider the following scenarios:
Suppose Health Canada receives a potency complaint, verifies it statistically, and finds that 54.4% of the tested samples fall within the tolerance range of the labeled potency. What actions should Health Canada take?
If Health Canada determines that 54.4% is an unacceptable level of conformance, what percentage of samples falling within the tolerance range should they aim for?
