How to Read CBD Product Labels for Safety and Quality

Reading CBD product labels correctly is essential to ensure you choose safe, high-quality tinctures, topicals, softgels, gummies, and more for you, your family, or your pets. To date, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not developed and released labeling guidelines for hemp-derived CBD products, so you need to be a smart shopper!

With that in mind, there are several key pieces of information you should look for to compare and evaluate CBD products before you buy. Let’s take a closer look at the most important things to look for on CBD product labels.

Serving Information

Similar to food labels, many CBD product labels include serving information, so you instantly know the recommended serving size, how much CBD you’ll get in each serving, and how many servings are in the bottle, jar, or package.

Serving Size

Serving size tells you how much of the CBD product to consume or use at one time – similar to how food and pharmaceutical product servings are displayed on labels. For example, Pure Craft’s Nano CBD Water Soluble + Melatonin tincture shows a serving size of 1 dropper (1 mL).

CBD Per Serving

How much CBD will you get when you take a serving of a CBD product? That’s what the CBD per serving information on CBD product labels tells you. Let’s say you take a serving (1 mL dropper) of Pure Craft’s Nano CBD Water Soluble + Melatonin tincture. A quick check of the product label says you’ll consume 33.33 mg of CBD.

Servings Per Bottle (or Other Packaging)

If you want to know how many uses you’ll get from a CBD product, check the servings per bottle (or jar or other container). This information is particularly helpful for accurate price comparisons. Looking at the label for a bottle of Pure Craft’s Nano CBD Water Soluble + Melatonin tincture shows there are 30 servings (1 mL dropper) in a 1 fl oz (30 mL) bottle.

Ingredients

The ingredients section of CBD product labels is extremely important so you can confirm that there aren’t any unusual, unnecessary, or unsafe ingredients in the products you buy. For example, it’s not unusual to see an added sweetener like natural sugar cane or Stevia in an edible or tincture to improve the flavor, nor is it unusual for a topical to include additional carrier oils, essential oils, and ingredients to create the right consistency and aromas, such as shea butter or lavender oil.

In fact, some CBD product labels, like Pure Craft’s Nano CBD Infused Muscle and Joint Cream, provide information about active ingredients separately from inactive ingredients. On the Nano CBD Infused Muscle and Joint Cream label, the Nano CBD and Nano-Optimized CBD hemp oil are listed in an Active Ingredients section while water, carrier oils, essential oils, and other inactive ingredients are listed in the Ingredients section.

Suggested Use or Directions

The suggested use or directions section tells you how to use the product to stay safe and get the optimal results. If there are age restrictions related to who can safely use the product, such as adults and/or children, this information may also appear in the suggested use or directions section of the label.

In addition, many CBD product labels will include a required message that says, “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.” Since the FDA has not yet released guidelines related to CBD product advertising, labeling, and so on, this statement is required. You’ll find a similar statement on essential oil products, herbal products, and many nutritional supplements that are not regulated by the FDA or approved by the FDA to make statements related to the medical efficacy of their products.

Nutritional Information

Edible CBD products, like Pure Craft’s Nano CBD Infused Vegan Broad Spectrum Gummies, should provide nutritional information like you’d find on other food products. This information includes calories per serving and a list of vitamins and minerals with the corresponding percentage of the recommended daily intake for each vitamin and mineral provided in a single serving.

Storage

The storage instructions on CBD product labels is important because it tells you how to store the product so it stays fresh, effective, and safe for as long as possible. For tinctures, this usually includes storing the product away from light and heat. Similarly, to retain the freshness of gummies, the label will instruct you to store the product away from excessive heat, light, and humidity.

Warnings

Many CBD product labels include specific warnings that are included to keep you, your family, and pets safe. For example, Pure Craft’s Nano CBD Infused Muscle and Joint Cream label warns you that the product is for external use only and is not recommended for pregnant women or anyone under 18 years of age. The label also warns you to avoid getting the cream into your eyes and not to use it if you’re breast-feeding.

Key Takeaways about Reading CBD Product Labels

CBD product labels are not standardized yet, so it’s important to understand what you should look for before you make a purchase decision. Serving information, ingredients, directions, storage instructions, nutritional information, and warnings are critical parts of the label to read and compare between brands to ensure you’re buying the highest quality and safest products.

Finally, make sure the label includes information about the company behind the product. Go to the company’s website and do some online research to evaluate the brand, so you can feel confident that you’re buying the best product from a company you can trust.