Microbial pathogens can contaminate cannabis plants during growth or storage, leading to serious health risks to humans, especially for those with compromised immune systems, as well as a substantial loss of product and costly remediation. Due to the diversity of pathogens, it is important to test for a wide range of bacteria and fungi commonly found in the cultivation of cannabis.

Northern Scientific has verified the appropriate compendial European Pharmacopoeia (EP)/United States Pharmacopeia (USP) methods to provide access to comprehensive cannabis microbial testing. 

We utilize standard culture-based methods for microbial enumeration (Total Aerobic Microbial Count, Total Yeast and Mold Count, Bile-Tolerant Gram-Negative Bacteria) according to current EP 2.6.12., and EP 2.6.31., USP<2021>, and USP<61> procedures as per client requirements. Culture-based methods remain necessary for detection and enumeration, to determine viability, and to validate phenotype predictions made on the bias of genomic analysis. 

We also test for the presence of specified organisms (Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bile-Tolerant Gram-Negative Bacteria) by selective and differential plating according to current EP 2.6.31., and EP 2.6.13., USP<2022>, and USP<62> procedures, followed by state-of-the-art qPCR technology and Medicinal Genomics PathoSEEK Detection Assays to identify microbial isolates recovered during testing. qPCR is highly specific and rapid technique identifying pathogen-specific DNA markers and reduces false-positive results common in time-consuming phenotypic identification methods such as biochemical tests.

Our microbial testing packages are created to test against the most common EP and USP specifications. Health Canada requires licence holders to select the specification appropriate for the intended or reasonably foreseeable use of the cannabis product they are producing.