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Scale up issues and herbs/emulsions question
Hello, I want to thank those who have given me great advice on this forum. I have a state licensed cannabis (THC and CBD) company in WA state and the topicals I have designed, with the help of Mark Fuller from Microformulation and Perry (I have been taking his online courses and asking him (too) many questions. Our product line has been exploding and we are now going to be partnering with a large cannabis retail chain as well other retailers. I now have to figure out how to scale my little hobby products into large production. What I am looking for is a mixer that that will allow dispersion of a powdered thickener (Sepinow-EMT-10) into the water soluble nanoemulsion (minimum volume of 20 liters). The system I am currently using is a small lab mixer and breaking the volumes down to a couple liters and then the mixture has to sit overnight to wet, then the next day, it is finished off.
I am also hoping someone knows a good ratio for mixing dry herbs into a solvent to add to the water phase, or if oil carrier, the oil phase.
Thanks in advance for any advice that is offered. -
5 Replies
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1. I would outsource Production if it is that large. At a certain volume, you simply can’t compete with an established plant.2. And this is just me, I never encourage a client to mix dried herbs to make extracts. We have a duty to produce a product that is consistent from batch to batch. Without validated and standardized materials, you can not do this. Also, you will not have all the documentation. I would suggest looking at standardized Hydroglycolc extracts. You can get many in Organic grade and it simplifies the process. If you decide to keep Production in-house, you will need to streamline these processes and a commercially available standardized product is a great way to do so. -
Hi Mark,
Nice to hear from you.
Thanks for the info. I have not heard of these types of extracts. The company that I am formulating the topicals for is really into herbs and want those in their topical. Currently I am using those sourced from FSS which is standardized. It almost feels like a green-washed product.
We currently have a processing facility designed for scale up operation so can accommodate a large mixer without issue. -
Standardized products are not greenwashing. In fact, if one were to try and use these products credibly, they would use standardized extracts. Again, one property of a good Formula is consistency from Production run to Production run. Without standardizing your extract, you are not providing this benefit.Greenwashing would be simply adding a standardized extract to a less than “natural” product to imply a safer product.There are numerous suppliers of these standardized extracts from retail sellers (From Nature with Love) to wholesale providers (Bio-Botanica, Botanicals Plus, FSS, etc.)And as far as streamlining Production, these are simply better quality than you would make locally, they are affordable, almost every botanical product with Cosmetic uses are available and you would save the numerous hours “producing” these extracts.Don’t get fixated on “I must make my own extracts.” It is a detriment to the quality of your final product (inconsistency), you have the documentation for the extract (a buyer will eventually ask for them) and it would save time.
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Thanks Mark
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Anytime. Glad to see that you are having success.
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