The CBD Scouts Trust Score helps you understand how honest and transparent companies are about their products.
Our trust score is based on ten categories—all of which are designed to answer two core questions:
- Are you able to make informed decisions about what you’re buying?
- Has the company taken the time to ensure consumer safety?
A more detailed accounting of all ten categories can be found below.
Is product information clear and easy to understand?
Consumers shouldn’t have to look hard to find answers to basic questions. To qualify as providing clear and easy to understand information, a CBD company must provide:
- Product ingredients
- An accounting of how much CBD is in each drop or dropper
Many companies selling CBD products don’t even meet this standard—they only state the benefits but don’t describe what is actually in their products.
What extraction process does the company use?
Knowing what extraction process a company uses not only helps you understand if the product actually contains CBD but what else should be investigated before buying.
To count towards a company’s trust score, the company must clearly list the extraction method in their product details—whether on the product webpage or product label.
Does the company provide publicly accessible lab results?
The single most important component that contributes to a company’s trust score is a publicly available lab test that you can review before making a purchase.
The best companies make their results easy to find and publish reports for every batch.
Is the lab test up to date?
Beyond just being publicly available, a lab test must be up to date for it to count towards a company’s trust score.
Though the shelf-life of CBD oil is typically 18-months, we consider a lab test to be up to date if it was conducted within the last twelve months.
How rigorous is the company’s testing process?
If CBD oil is to be part of a daily regimen, you need to know not only that what they’re taking has enough cannabidiol to produce its intended effects, but that it’s also free from harmful materials like heavy metals, solvents, mold, and pesticides.
Our trust score takes into account the full range of things companies should be testing to ensure your safety.
Potency
This is the most common thing companies test for and is the bare minimum. Unfortunately, when many companies tout their third-party testing, it stops at potency.
Heavy metals
Is the company testing their products to ensure they’re within FDA limits (or hopefully free from) for heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and mercury?
Microbiology
Is the company testing their products to ensure they’re within FDA limits (or hopefully free from) for mold, yeast, and salmonella?
Pesticides
Is the company testing their products to ensure they’re within FDA limits (or hopefully free from) for pesticides?
Solvents and volatile compounds
Is the company testing their products to ensure they’re within FDA limits (or hopefully free from) for solvents and volatile compounds like ethanol and butane?
Does the company offer a money-back guarantee?
Will a company stand behind its product even after you’ve tried it? Will they provide a refund if the product causes a negative reaction or arrives with a strange consistency, taste, look, or smell?
A company that stands behind their products is a company that inspires trust—and this quality increases the CBD Scouts Trust Score.
What the CBD Scouts Trust Score is NOT
To reiterate, the goal of the trust score is to help consumers understand how honest and transparent companies are about their products.
This score does not take into account the quality or value of the products themselves. Understanding quality is an undertaking that is not possible without analyzing lab result tests in aggregate.
