If you’ve purchased kratom in the past, you probably know that it comes from many different countries, some of which don’t have the same customer safety standards as the United States. It can be challenging, in those cases, to find a product that you know is safe, because there isn’t always a reliable way to compare different countries’ standards side-by-side. This is where GMP compliance comes in.
GMP stands for Good Manufacturing Practice, and it is a set of regulations the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) uses to make sure products are safe, pure, and effective. This may seem confusing at first, because at the time of this article’s writing, kratom is not regulated by the FDA. Why, then, do GMP regulations matter for kratom, and what does GMP compliance mean about a kratom supplier? You may be surprised at the answer.
We Choose GMP Compliance
Products, like kratom, can be GMP compliant even if they’re not approved officially for use as a food or supplement by the FDA. The point of GMP compliance is to ensure that a product is consistent, safe, pure, and effective. Before these regulations were in place, the content of products like kratom could vary widely, and consumers didn’t know what they were actually getting.
We follow GMP compliance standards with kratom products for two important reasons. First, we want to be sure we give our customers the best quality kratom we can. Second, we want to be sure that our customers stay safe, because they know they can use us as a reliable source for their kratom needs. Companies that ignore GMP standards can have their products contaminated with bacteria, chemicals, or other dangerous organisms, and no kratom consumer wants to take a risk like that.
Safety from Seed to Sale
Following GMP standards involves monitoring kratom all the way from its growth to its final product that we give our customers. We’re not just keeping track of where the kratom is, though; we’re making sure that it’s safe every step of the way. We have audited suppliers who haven’t followed GMP procedures before, and are committed to making sure our suppliers continue to follow them, whether they are small or large operations. This is a vital part of GMP compliance, screening our suppliers to make sure they follow the right procedures to keep customers safe.
The first step to making safe kratom is to control how kratom is processed and packaged in our production facilities. This control is a process into itself, and never stops happening. Our GMP compliant facilities must have environmental controls to test for pathogens, like bacteria and mold. The facilities must also have stringent sanitation policies and procedures in place. Sanitation procedures include quarantine of any questionable kratom batches and careful cleaning of equipment. Packaging of the final product is always consistent and clean, free of moisture or debris from processing.
Testing, Testing
The second step to ensuring safe kratom with GMP standards is perhaps the most important: frequent, rigorous testing of our products. It’s important to eliminate as many possibilities for contamination or production problems as possible during manufacturing, but the only way to be sure of a product’s quality is to test it. This doesn’t mean one test when production starts, and never testing again; it means testing every batch multiple times for a variety of different things that could affect safety.
Consistent manufacturing helps with testing, because our kratom is always produced the same way, milled and blended so there are very few extra variables to test. If we know what kratom is supposed to look like, and what’s supposed to be in it, then we can know immediately, with the right tests, if something is wrong, and prevent that batch from ever reaching our customers. Whether that means powdered kratom, tea, or extracts, our testing process is proven to keep our kratom safe.
Our testing protocols purposely take some time, because they measure many different types of potential safety hazards in kratom. First, we test kratom for heavy metals, like arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. All of these metals should be nowhere near a kratom product, especially since they can build up in the body over time. Next, we test for yeasts and mold, which aren’t always visible to the naked eye and can cause many different health problems. Finally, we test for harmful bacteria, like coliforms, E. coli, and Salmonella.
If any product we make tested positive for any of these harmful metals or organisms, giving them to our customers would violate GMP standards. So, the only products we make available to our customers are those that pass all of these tests. The safety of our customers is our top priority. Customer safety is such a priority to us that all of our products are tested in at least two different labs, and the products must conclusively pass all tests in every lab to be offered for sale.
Our Commitment to Consumers
We are always willing to answer questions about the way we manufacture kratom, and we encourage our consumers to ask us questions whenever they wish. A reputable kratom vendor should have no problem answering these questions to their customers’ satisfaction, and should easily be able to provide evidence that they are telling the truth.
We show our commitment to customer knowledge not only by answering questions, but by proving that we have some of the safest kratom on the market. Customers can request a certificate of authenticity for any or all of our products at no cost. Every batch of kratom is individually designated GMP compliant after we finish testing, so customers can get certificates for the most recent batches of kratom we make. We believe consumers should ask any kratom company about their manufacturing and testing processes, because transparency is important. The more knowledge our customers have, the happier they’ll be, and the happier we’ll be too.
Closing
All of this combines to ensure that you get the absolute best quality Kratom products available on the market. If you have any questions about kratom, GMP compliance, or our manufacturing and testing processes, please don’t hesitate to contact us!
