HOUSTON – A new report from Future Nutra Foundation (FNF), a Houston-based nonprofit supplement-testing organization, found that most of the hemp-derived delta-9 THC beverages it tested did not deliver the potency listed on their labels.
FNF purchased 21 hemp-derived delta-9 THC beverages through normal retail and online channels and sent matched batches to three independent, ISO/IEC 17025-accredited laboratories for testing. Only four products — 19 percent of the sample — fell within FNF’s defined “accurate dose” range of 90–110 percent of labeled delta-9 THC content. Twelve products, or 57 percent, delivered less than 80 percent of their labeled dose.
The report identified extremes at both ends. Cali Sober’s Paloma Spritz, labeled at 5mg delta-9 THC, tested at 0.19 mg, or 3.8 percent of the claimed dose. Daizy’s Strawberry Lemonade, labeled at 10 mg, tested at approximately 11.9 mg, or 119 percent of the label claim — the only product that tested above FNF’s 110-percent ceiling. Four products landed in FNF’s “accurate dose” range: Howdy, CANN, Brez, and Birdie.
“One of the most basic promises a product makes to the public is the number on its label,” FNF Science Director Paul Eftang said in a prepared statement about the report. “When a beverage claims 5 or 10 milligrams of delta-9 THC, consumers, retailers, and regulators should be able to trust that number within a reasonable margin of error.”
Questions remain about the testing methodology
FNF’s published results page identifies the three labs as Trichome Analytical (Mount Laurel, New Jersey), Infinite CAL (San Diego), and MCR Labs (Framingham, Massachusetts). The same page discloses that the beverages originally were tested at four labs, but one was excluded from all published averages after being deemed an “extreme outlier.” FNF’s site does not detail the criteria used to make that determination or name the excluded lab.
FNF also flagged a gap between potency figures on point-of-manufacture Certificates of Analysis (COAs), often linked via QR code on product packaging, and what the testing labs measured in products bought at retail. The organization is calling on manufacturers to adopt batch-to-batch verification against a defined accuracy specification and to conduct stability studies through a product’s full shelf life, in addition to publishing COAs.
FNF launched in April 2026 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, initially publishing testing results on electrolyte supplements before turning to hemp-derived THC beverages. FNF president Joey Savage has described the organization’s approach as an attempt to counter what he has characterized as unbalanced media coverage of the supplement industry, telling one trade outlet in April that reliability in the industry is “not as bad as they say it is in the media.”
Federal hemp deadline raises the stakes
The report lands as hemp-derived intoxicating products face a federal deadline. Under Public Law 119-37, signed into law in November 2025, the federal definition of hemp shifts to a total-THC standard that caps finished hemp-derived cannabinoid products at 0.4 mg per container of total THC and other similarly acting cannabinoids, effective November 12, 2026. Hemp industry groups say the threshold would render roughly 95 percent of current hemp-derived THC products noncompliant absent congressional action. Several bills pending in Congress would delay or restructure the ban.
Separately, some industry groups are pushing for standardized testing and labeling requirements rather than delay or repeal alone. The advocacy group Hemp Industry and Farmers of America has lobbied for a comprehensive federal regulatory framework built around defined testing and labeling standards, positioning that approach against narrower carve-outs some beverage-industry players have floated. The Cannabinoid Safety and Regulation Act, reintroduced in December 2025 by Oregon Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, would replace prohibition with an FDA-regulated framework that includes mandatory testing, labeling, and per-serving and per-package THC limits.
