Findings

Lab reports

How to read a Certificate of Analysis (COA)

Every product on a Florida MMTC menu has a lab report behind it. This page shows you how to find that report, read it page by page, and use it to choose your medicine with confidence.

If you have ever looked at a product label and wondered whether the number on it is something you can trust, you are asking the right question. The answer lives in one document: the Certificate of Analysis, or COA. Once you know how to read one, a wall of unfamiliar numbers becomes a clear picture of what is in the product, what was tested for, and how it measured against Florida's limits.

Each section below starts in plain English. Where Florida's rules set a specific requirement, a Florida requires box follows so you can see exactly what the state program demands. Read the plain-English parts and skip the boxes, or read both.

The images on this page are excerpts of real certificates issued by Florida-certified laboratories (Kaycha Labs, Method Testing Laboratories and ACT Laboratories), all issued after Florida's new testing rules took effect on May 28, 2026, reproduced in part and annotated for education. Tap any image to open it full size; each caption links to the complete certificate as the MMTC published it. The certificates remain the property of the laboratories that issued them; nothing here should be taken as a substitute for the full report.

What a COA is, and why Florida requires one

A Certificate of Analysis is a lab report tied to one specific batch of a product. It records what an independent laboratory measured in that batch and whether the batch met Florida's limits.

A complete COA covers two big areas:

Potency: how much THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids are in the product, and often a terpene profile.
Safety: screens for contaminants (microbes, mycotoxins, residual solvents, heavy metals, and pesticides) plus quality checks like moisture, water activity, and foreign material.

Think of it this way: a sealed bottle of aspirin is the same every time. Cannabis is an agricultural product that can vary from harvest to harvest, so every batch gets checked before it can be sold. Testing confirms three things at once: the label is accurate, the product is clean, and there is a paper trail linking the product in your hand to the exact sample the lab tested.

Plain-English takeaway: if a product is legally on a Florida MMTC menu, it has already passed every required test. The COA lets you see the details behind that pass, and choose between products that all passed but differ in potency, terpene character, and freshness.

Florida requires

Testing is done by Certified Marijuana Testing Laboratories (CMTLs), independent labs certified by the Florida Department of Health's Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU). A CMTL must hold ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation and pass regular proficiency tests, and an MMTC may not own or have a financial interest in a testing lab.
Every Retail Batch is tested before it can be dispensed. Products made from the same harvest, such as flower and the pre-rolls made from it, are separate Retail Batches and are tested separately.
Florida sorts products into four testing categories ("matrices"): Usable Whole Flower Marijuana, Derivative Product intended for inhalation (vapes, concentrates), Derivative Product not intended for inhalation (tinctures, capsules, topicals), and Edibles. Kief, bubble hash, and rosin (trichomes separated without solvent) are tested to the flower standard. A product that can be used more than one way is held to the stricter limit.
A batch that fails any limit cannot be dispensed. The lab must confirm every contaminant failure by re-testing a stored portion of the same sample, report the failure to the OMMU within 24 hours, and the COA must clearly show which analyte failed and at what level.
COAs must be delivered as locked PDFs that cannot be edited, and COA results expire no more than one year from the sample date.

The rules behind this page are Florida Administrative Code Chapter 64-4, mainly Rule 64-4.308 (CMTL Sample Testing) and Rule 64-4.311 (CMTL Certificate of Analysis), both effective May 28, 2026. They replaced the emergency rules (64ER20-series) that governed testing from 2020 through mid-2026, so older COAs may follow slightly different formats and limits.

How to get the COA for your product

Getting a COA is usually easy. Any one of these paths works:

Look for it on the product page. Most Florida MMTCs link the COA directly from the product listing on their website. Look for "Lab Results," "COA," or "Certificate of Analysis" on the product page. On this site, the green Lab report ✓ on a product opens the same document.
Scan the QR code on the package. Many labels carry a QR code that opens the lab report. Scan it with your phone's camera before you buy or as soon as you get home.
Use the batch number. Every label carries a batch (Retail Batch) number, usually near the barcode. Florida labs run online lookup portals where you enter that number to pull up the matching report. If you forgot to grab the report in-store, the batch number lets you find it later.
Ask at the counter. Asking an MMTC team member for the COA on a specific product is normal and encouraged. They will either hand you the report or point you to where it lives.

The one rule that matters most: confirm the batch number on the COA matches the batch number on your product. A report only means something if it describes the exact batch you are holding. If the numbers do not match, or the report cannot be found, ask before you buy.

Florida requires

The MMTC must be able to provide the COA for any Retail Batch it dispenses. The lab delivers the COA to the MMTC within 24 hours of verifying results, and passing results are uploaded to the state's seed-to-sale tracking system. Any COA that was retested or amended must carry a bold 14-point statement saying so, plus a narrative of what changed, so you can tell a revised report from an original.

Page 1: the header and the results summary

The first page of a Florida certificate of analysis: product and batch details, the seed-to-sale block, and the pass/fail summary grid — The first page of a Florida COA, annotated: product and batch, the seed-to-sale block, the pass/fail grid, the potency headline numbers, a below-LOD result in the new format, the footnotes and the lab's credentials. Excerpt from a Kaycha Labs certificate for Curaleaf's Baba Yaga flower, September 2026. See the complete certificate.

The first page is a summary of everything else in the report. Glance here first to confirm you are looking at the right document, then read the pass/fail grid.

The header. Check these five things:

Product name: should match the product you are considering.
Batch / lot number: must match the label on the package.
Test date and expiration date: newer is generally better (see Red flags).
Laboratory name and accreditation: look for a Florida CMTL and an ISO/IEC 17025 reference.
Sample type ("matrix"): flower, inhalable derivative, non-inhalable derivative, or edible. The tests required, and the limits applied, differ by type.

The seed-to-sale block. Florida tracks every product from plant to patient, and the COA carries that trail: which MMTC grew and processed it, the cultivation date, the production or harvest date, the number of units in the batch, and the batch weight. This is how the state, and you, can link the package in your hand to the exact sample that was tested.

The results summary grid. This grid lists each test category (potency, microbials, mycotoxins, heavy metals, pesticides, residual solvents, water activity, moisture, filth and foreign material) with a PASS or FAIL next to each. A passing product shows PASS on every test that applies to its type. Some tests simply do not apply: moisture, for example, is only required for flower and solventless concentrates, so an edible COA may show it as not tested. That is normal, not a gap.

The potency and terpene summaries. Below the grid you will usually find the headline numbers: Total THC, Total CBD, CBG, CBN, and total cannabinoids, followed by the top terpenes and total terpene percentage. The detailed tables come later in the report.

The footnotes. The bottom of the page usually lists the equations and abbreviations used in the report, such as the Total THC formula, the definitions of LOD and LOQ, and which units apply. Do not skip these. They tell you exactly how the lab calculated the numbers above.

Florida requires

A COA must show the MMTC that submitted the sample, the cultivation and processing facilities, the cultivar (or "mixed cultivar"), the Retail Batch and harvest batch numbers with their creation dates, the number of units and total weight or volume in the batch, the testing matrix, the sample preparation date and time, the instrument used, the SOPs followed, an expiration date no more than one year from the sample date, and a PASS or FAIL statement in bold 14-point type or larger. Any failed COA must include a photo of the product label and packaging. (Rule 64-4.311)

Potency: the cannabinoid panel

The cannabinoid panel from a flower COA, with the THCA, delta-9 THC and Total THC lines — The cannabinoid panel from a flower COA, annotated: the THCA and delta-9 THC rows, a below-LOD result, a between-LOD-and-LOQ result marked "J", Total THC, total cannabinoids and the label-claim check. Excerpt from a Method Testing Laboratories certificate for Sunburn's Maple Dunks flower, September 2026. See the complete certificate.

This is the section most patients read first. It lists each cannabinoid the lab measured and how much of it is present. Results are shown two ways, and they are interchangeable:

Percent by weight (%): for example, 25% THC.
Milligrams per gram (mg/g): the same value written differently. Multiply the percentage by 10 to get mg/g (25% = 250 mg/g); divide by 10 to go back.

THC, THCA, and the Total THC formula. This is the single most misunderstood part of any COA. Flower usually shows a low delta-9 THC number and a high THCA number, and patients sometimes read that low delta-9 figure as "weak." It usually isn't.

THCA is the raw, non-intoxicating acid form of THC found in unheated flower. When you apply heat (smoking, vaping, cooking) THCA converts to active delta-9 THC through a reaction called decarboxylation. During that reaction the molecule sheds a carbon-dioxide group and loses a bit of mass, which is why labs use a conversion factor of 0.877 (THC weighs about 87.7% of what THCA weighs).

Total THC = Delta-9 THC + (THCA × 0.877)

The same logic gives Total CBD = CBD + (CBDA × 0.877).

Worked example. A flower batch listed at 28.0% THCA and 0.50% delta-9 THC works out to 0.50 + (28.0 × 0.877) = about 25.1% Total THC. Total THC is the number to use when comparing two products head-to-head. Treat it as a ceiling, the maximum after full conversion, because real-world heating is never 100% efficient.

Cannabinoid	% by weight	mg/g	Note
THCA	28.0%	280	Raw acid form; converts with heat
Delta-9 THC	0.50%	5.0	Already-active THC
Total THC (calculated)	≈ 25.1%	≈ 251	The key comparison number
CBD / CBDA	< 0.10%	< 1.0	Below the lab's reporting limit
Total cannabinoids	26.4%	264	Sum of everything detected

CBD, minor cannabinoids, and "Total Cannabinoids." CBD and CBDA follow the same acid-to-active relationship as THC. You may also see minor cannabinoids such as CBG, CBN, CBC, THCV, and CBDV in smaller amounts. Total Cannabinoids sums everything the lab detected. It is not the same as Total THC, and a higher Total Cannabinoids figure does not mean a stronger THC effect. For potency comparisons keep your eye on the Total THC line; for a CBD-forward or balanced product, compare the Total CBD line and the CBD:THC ratio. Research into how the various cannabinoids interact is ongoing, so use these figures to compare products and consistency, and bring questions about effects to your physician.

Dry weight vs. as-received. Flower naturally holds some moisture. Under Florida's current rule, flower potency is reported as received, at the moisture content the lab measured, not corrected to a dry-weight basis. That means two batches at different moisture levels are not perfectly apples-to-apples, but it is the number that reflects the product as sold. Contaminant results for flower, by contrast, are corrected to dry weight.

Florida requires

Every COA must report Total Active THC and Total Active CBD in milligrams per package, plus the full Cannabinoid Profile in both mg/g and percent, to three significant figures.
Florida's definition of Total Active THC is delta-9 THC + delta-8 THC + (THCA × 0.877). Labs have until May 2027 to add the delta-8 term, so most COAs you see today use the simpler delta-9 + (THCA × 0.877) formula shown above. Total Active CBD = CBD + (CBDA × 0.877).
The lab must test for eleven cannabinoids: delta-9 THC, delta-8 THC, THCA, THCV, CBD, CBDA, CBDV, CBG, CBGA, CBN, and CBC.
Flower potency is reported as received (at the lab-tested moisture content) using the labeled weight of the package; edibles use the measured weight. Any flower result above 32% Total Active THC must be confirmed by re-preparing and re-analyzing the sample and reported to the OMMU.
Label accuracy is tested too. If the label claims more than 25 mg of a cannabinoid per package, the tested amount may differ by no more than 10%; at 25 mg or less, by no more than 50%; a label claim of 10 mg or less must test at 10 mg or less. For edibles the tolerance is 15%. A claimed ratio (for example 1:1) must be within 10%. A label outside these tolerances is a labeled potency failure and the product cannot be sold until the label is corrected and a new COA issued.

The terpene profile

The terpene panel from a COA, listing each terpene with its percentage and the total — The terpene panel from the same COA, annotated: the units, the top terpenes, a "J"-qualified trace and the below-LOD entries. Excerpt from a Method Testing Laboratories certificate for Sunburn's Maple Dunks flower, September 2026. See the complete certificate.

Terpenes are the aromatic compounds that give each cultivar its distinctive smell and flavor. Most Florida MMTCs publish a terpene panel on the COA, and many list the top terpenes on the menu. Terpenes are usually shown in percent by weight or in mg/g, and sometimes in parts per million (ppm); higher numbers generally mean a more pronounced aroma. A total terpene percentage usually appears just under the table.

Common terpenes you will see include myrcene (earthy, herbal), limonene (citrus), beta-caryophyllene (peppery, spicy), pinene (pine), linalool (floral), humulene (woody, hoppy), ocimene (sweet, herbal), and terpinolene (bright, complex).

Patients often use the terpene profile and the top three terpenes as a guide to a product's character and to find consistency across repurchases. The idea that terpenes and cannabinoids work together, sometimes called the "entourage effect," is an active area of research rather than settled fact, so this page describes terpenes by their aroma, not by any health effect.

A consistency tip: if a cultivar you like always smells citrus-forward but a new batch's COA shows a very different top terpene, the experience may differ too. The terpene panel is a useful fingerprint for finding the same character batch to batch, and it is a better guide than the strain name alone, since the same name can vary from grow to grow.

Florida's position

Terpene analysis is not a required compliance test in Florida. The rule only mentions terpenes to say that, when a lab does run them on flower, the results are reported as received rather than corrected to dry weight. Because the panel is voluntary, the set of terpenes measured, the units, and whether a total is shown can vary from lab to lab and MMTC to MMTC. A COA with no terpene section is complete; a COA with no safety section is not.

How to read a contaminant results table

One contaminant results table from a COA, showing the analyte, method, LOD, LOQ, action limit, result and status columns — One contaminant table, annotated: the analyte, instrument, LOD, LOQ, limit, result and status columns, with a measured result, a between-LOD-and-LOQ result and a below-LOD result on the same page. Excerpt from an ACT Laboratories certificate for MÜV's Juicy Mango vape, August 2026. See the complete certificate.

The safety pages are the part of the COA Florida regulates most tightly, and every one of them uses the same table layout. Once you can read one, you can read them all. Each row is one analyte (one specific contaminant), and the columns tell you:

Column	What it means	What to look for
Analyte	The specific compound or organism tested	Florida's required list for that category
Method / instrument	How it was measured (e.g., LC-MS/MS, GC-MS, ICP-MS, PCR, plating)	Gives insight into the strengths and limits of the result
LOD (limit of detection)	The lowest amount the instrument can detect at all	Set by the lab, must be well below the limit
LOQ (limit of quantification)	The lowest amount the instrument can measure reliably	Always at or above the LOD
Action limit	The most Florida allows before the product fails	Printed on the COA for every analyte
Result	The measured amount, with its unit	"<" plus the LOD, a qualified estimate (e.g. "1.06 J"), or a number below the limit
Status	PASS or FAIL for that analyte	PASS on every row

Reading the result column. Since Florida's new rules took effect on May 28, 2026, every result on a COA is written one of four ways, to three significant figures:

Below the LOD: written as "<" plus the LOD number, e.g. <0.0200. Nothing was detected above the instrument's floor. This is the cleanest possible result. (One lab, Method, writes "<LOD" and prints the LOD number in the column beside it.)
Between the LOD and the LOQ: the lab's best estimate, marked with a qualifier, e.g. 1.06 J or 3.59 *. The instrument saw something, but the amount is too small to measure precisely. Each lab picks its own symbol and defines it in the notes. Still a pass, and usually far below the limit.
A number: the analyte was measured. Compare it to the action limit; below the limit is a pass.
> [value]: the result was above the top of the instrument's calibration range. Rare on a passing COA.

Older COAs, and some labs that have not yet caught up, still write ND ("not detected") or <LOQ. Those are the old style: "ND" hides how low the lab could actually see, and "<LOQ" lumps a real trace together with nothing at all.

Worked example. In a residual-solvent table, suppose isopropanol reads <50.0 with an LOD of 50 µg/g, and methanol reads 31.2 J with an LOD of 25 µg/g and an LOQ of 50 µg/g. The isopropanol line tells you the lab found nothing above 50 µg/g. The methanol line tells you the lab detected a trace, about 31 µg/g, between the LOD and the LOQ, so the number is an estimate and carries the "J" qualifier. Both are passes: the Florida limit for isopropanol in an inhalable product is 500 µg/g and for methanol 250 µg/g, so even the highest possible reading is a small fraction of what is allowed.

Units to know. Contaminants are reported in ppm (parts per million) or ppb (parts per billion). 1 ppm = 1,000 ppb. Labs often write ppm as µg/g (micrograms per gram) and ppb as ng/g (nanograms per gram); they are the same thing. Microbial counts are in CFU/g (colony-forming units per gram), and the most serious organisms are simply reported present / not present.

Florida requires

Every result above the LOD must be a numeric value to three significant figures; a value below the LOD is written as "< [LOD value]"; a value between the LOD and LOQ must be marked with a qualifier; and the COA must print the action limit for each analyte so you never have to look it up. Flower contaminant results are corrected to dry weight; derivative products and edibles are not. Any contaminant failure must be confirmed by re-analysis of a stored portion of the same sample, and if confirmed, the highest value is what goes on the COA. A result within 10% of the limit must also be re-analyzed.

Microbials and mycotoxins

The microbial and mycotoxin pages of a COA — The microbial and mycotoxin tables of a COA, annotated: the four Aspergillus species, Listeria, total yeast and mold, the PCR and culture methods, and the five mycotoxins. Excerpt from a Kaycha Labs certificate for Curaleaf's Baba Yaga flower, September 2026. See the complete certificate.

In plain English. Microbial screening looks for harmful organisms: bacteria such as Salmonella and toxin-producing E. coli, and problem molds such as Aspergillus. It also counts total yeast and mold. Mycotoxins are poisons, such as aflatoxins, that certain molds leave behind even after the mold itself is gone. This category matters for everyone and is especially relevant for patients with weakened immune systems, since inhaling or ingesting these organisms can cause serious infection.

On the COA, the dangerous organisms are reported as present / not present (you want "not present" or "ND" on every line). Total yeast and mold is reported as a count in CFU/g, compared with the limit.

Florida requires (all product types unless noted)

Analyte	Limit	Applies to
Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC)	None present in 1 g	All
Salmonella spp.	None present in 1 g	All
Aspergillus niger, A. fumigatus, A. flavus, A. terreus	None present in 1 g	All
Listeria monocytogenes	None present in 1 g	Flower and edibles
Total combined yeast and mold	Less than 100,000 CFU/g	All
Total aerobic microbial count	Less than 100 CFU/g	Non-oral transmucosal products only (nasal sprays, inhalers, suppositories)
Staphylococcus aureus	None present	Non-oral transmucosal only
Bile-tolerant Gram-negative bacteria	None present	Non-oral transmucosal only
Total yeast and mold (transmucosal)	Less than 10 CFU/g	Non-oral transmucosal only

Mycotoxin	Limit	Applies to
Aflatoxin B1	Less than 20 ppb	All
Aflatoxin B2	Less than 20 ppb	All
Aflatoxin G1	Less than 20 ppb	All
Aflatoxin G2	Less than 20 ppb	All
Sum of all aflatoxins	Less than 20 ppb	All
Ochratoxin A	Less than 20 ppb	All

A few details worth knowing: Listeria was added in the 2026 permanent rule, so COAs issued before mid-2026 will not show it. Yeast and mold on flower must be measured by a culture (plating) method, not just PCR. If a product was sterilized by irradiation, the lab must incubate the yeast and mold plates longer, since irradiation can slow surviving growth. And a lab must report any organism not on this list if it could be harmful, so an unfamiliar name on a microbial page is not automatically a problem; check its status column.

Residual solvents

The residual solvent page from a vape or concentrate COA — The residual solvent panel of a vape COA, annotated: Florida's inhaled action levels and a clean result column on a solvent-extracted live resin. Excerpt from a Method Testing Laboratories certificate for Ayr's Banana Punch live resin cartridge, September 2026. See the complete certificate.

In plain English. Many concentrates, vape oils, and the distillate inside edibles and tinctures are made by washing cannabinoids out of the plant with a solvent (butane, propane, ethanol, CO₂) and then purging the solvent off. Residual-solvent testing confirms that whatever solvent is left behind is within Florida's limits. Solventless products (flower, kief, bubble hash, rosin) are not required to have this test, and flower COAs often skip it.

The limits differ by how the product is used: inhaled products (vapes, dabs) have tighter limits for many solvents than non-inhaled products (edibles, capsules, tinctures, topicals), because the lungs are a more sensitive route than the gut.

Florida requires testing of derivative products for these 21 solvents

Solvent	Limit, inhaled (ppm)	Limit, not inhaled, incl. edibles (ppm)
Acetone	< 750	< 5,000
Acetonitrile	< 60	< 410
Benzene	< 1	< 1
Butane	< 5,000	< 5,000
Chloroform	< 2	< 2
1,2-Dichloroethane	< 2	< 2
1,1-Dichloroethene	< 8	< 8
Ethanol	< 5,000	< 5,000 (see note)
Ethyl acetate	< 400	< 5,000
Ethyl ether	< 500	< 5,000
Ethylene oxide	< 5	< 5
Heptane	< 5,000	< 5,000
Hexane	< 250	< 250
Isopropyl alcohol	< 500	< 5,000
Methanol	< 250	< 3,000
Methylene chloride	< 125	< 125
Pentane	< 750	< 5,000
Propane	< 5,000	< 5,000
Trichloroethylene	< 25	< 25
Toluene	< 150	< 890
Total xylenes (m-, p-, o-)	< 150	< 2,170

Ethanol note: oral products, topicals, and metered-dose inhalers are exempt from the ethanol limit, because ethanol is a common and accepted ingredient in tinctures and similar products. The lab must still measure and report the ethanol level on the COA, so you will see a number there even though it cannot fail.

What good looks like. On a well-made butane or propane extract you should see those two solvents at ND or a small fraction of the 5,000 ppm limit. Benzene, chloroform, 1,2-dichloroethane, ethylene oxide, and trichloroethylene are not used in cannabis extraction; they are on the list because they are toxic at tiny amounts and can turn up as impurities in lower-grade solvents. ND on those lines is what you want.

Pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides

The pesticide (agricultural agents) pages of a COA — The pesticide (agricultural agents) table of a COA, annotated: the ppm units, the two instruments, the per-compound limits and a result column in the new "<LOD" format. Excerpt (first of two pages) from an ACT Laboratories certificate for MÜV's Georgia Pie x Gastro Pop flower, September 2026. See the complete certificate.

In plain English. The cannabis plant absorbs and holds on to whatever is sprayed on it or applied to its soil, and heat can concentrate or change those chemicals when the product is smoked or vaped. Florida calls these agricultural agents and requires every product to be screened for 66 of them, each with its own limit. Any detection above the limit is a failure, and the batch cannot be dispensed. This page is long, but reading it is simple: you want ND or < LOD down the whole result column, and PASS down the whole status column.

As with solvents, most limits are tighter for inhaled products than for edibles and other non-inhaled products. Where the two limits are the same, the compound is considered hazardous by any route.

Florida requires screening for these 66 agricultural agents

Limits are in ppb (parts per billion); "inhaled" covers flower and inhalable derivatives, "not inhaled" covers edibles and other non-inhaled derivatives.

Show the full list of 66 agricultural agents and their limits

Agricultural agent	Inhaled (ppb)	Not inhaled (ppb)
Abamectin (B1a + B1b)	< 100	< 300
Acephate	< 100	< 3,000
Acequinocyl	< 100	< 2,000
Acetamiprid	< 100	< 3,000
Aldicarb	< 100	< 100
Azoxystrobin	< 100	< 3,000
Bifenazate	< 100	< 3,000
Bifenthrin	< 100	< 500
Boscalid	< 100	< 3,000
Carbaryl	< 500	< 500
Carbofuran	< 100	< 100
Chlorantraniliprole	< 1,000	< 3,000
Chlordane (cis + trans)	< 100	< 100
Chlorfenapyr	< 100	< 100
Chlormequat chloride	< 1,000	< 3,000
Chlorpyrifos	< 100	< 100
Clofentezine	< 200	< 500
Coumaphos	< 100	< 100
Cyfluthrin	< 500	< 1,000
Cypermethrin	< 500	< 1,000
Daminozide	< 100	< 100
Diazinon	< 100	< 200
Dichlorvos	< 100	< 100
Dimethoate	< 100	< 100
Dimethomorph (E + Z)	< 200	< 3,000
Ethoprophos	< 100	< 100
Etofenprox	< 100	< 100
Etoxazole	< 100	< 1,500
Fenhexamid	< 100	< 3,000
Fenoxycarb	< 100	< 100
Fenpyroximate	< 100	< 2,000
Fipronil	< 100	< 100
Flonicamid	< 100	< 2,000
Fludioxonil	< 100	< 3,000
Hexythiazox	< 100	< 2,000
Imazalil	< 100	< 100
Imidacloprid	< 400	< 3,000
Kresoxim-methyl	< 100	< 1,000
Malathion	< 200	< 2,000
Metalaxyl	< 100	< 3,000
Methiocarb	< 100	< 100
Methomyl	< 100	< 100
Methyl parathion	< 100	< 100
Mevinphos	< 100	< 100
Myclobutanil	< 100	< 3,000
Naled	< 250	< 500
Oxamyl	< 500	< 500
Paclobutrazol	< 100	< 100
Pentachloronitrobenzene (PCNB)	< 150	< 200
Permethrin (cis + trans)	< 100	< 1,000
Phosmet	< 100	< 200
Piperonyl butoxide	< 3,000	< 3,000
Prallethrin	< 100	< 400
Propiconazole	< 100	< 1,000
Propoxur	< 100	< 100
Pyrethrins (I, II, cinerins, jasmolins)	< 500	< 1,000
Pyridaben	< 200	< 3,000
Spinetoram (J + L)	< 200	< 3,000
Spinosad (A + D)	< 100	< 3,000
Spiromesifen	< 100	< 3,000
Spirotetramat	< 100	< 3,000
Spiroxamine	< 100	< 100
Tebuconazole	< 100	< 1,000
Thiacloprid	< 100	< 100
Thiamethoxam	< 500	< 1,000
Trifloxystrobin	< 100	< 3,000

Two more rules on top of the list. First, there is a total contaminant load cap: all agricultural agents added together must be under 5 ppm for inhaled products and under 30 ppm for non-inhaled products, so a batch cannot pass by having many compounds each just under its own limit. Second, if a lab finds a pesticide, solvent, metal, or microbe that is not on Florida's list and could be toxic, the OMMU can fail the batch anyway, and the lab must report the finding within 24 hours.

A note on what growers may use. Being on this list does not mean a compound is allowed in cultivation. Florida MMTCs may only apply pesticides registered with the Florida Department of Agriculture or the U.S. EPA for use on the crop (Rule 64-4.013). The testing list exists to catch what should not be there.

Why some names look familiar. Myclobutanil is the fungicide behind the Eagle 20 controversy in other states; when heated it can release hydrogen cyanide, which is why its inhaled limit is 30 times tighter than its edible limit. Piperonyl butoxide and pyrethrins are common in household bug sprays. Chlorpyrifos and carbofuran are organophosphate and carbamate insecticides that are now heavily restricted in food crops.

Heavy metals

In plain English. Metals get into a plant from soil, water, fertilizer, and processing equipment, and cannabis is unusually good at pulling them up from the ground. In vape products, metals can also leach from the cartridge hardware into the oil. Heavy-metal testing checks the finished product for a short list of toxic metals, each with its own limit. Because inhaled metals go straight to the bloodstream, the limits for vapes and flower are much tighter than for edibles and tinctures.

Florida requires testing every product type for six metals

Metal	Inhaled (ppb)	Not inhaled, incl. edibles (ppb)
Lead (Pb)	< 500	< 500
Arsenic (As)	< 200	< 1,500
Cadmium (Cd)	< 200	< 500
Mercury (Hg)	< 200	< 3,000
Nickel (Ni)	< 500	< 3,000
Tin (Sn)	< 4,000	< 4,000

Nickel and tin were added in the 2026 permanent rule (labs had 60 days from May 28, 2026 to begin reporting them), so a COA issued before then will show only the "big four": lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury. Nickel in particular is worth watching on vape COAs, since it is a common component of cartridge heating elements. The lab measures these by ICP-MS, which can see metals at parts-per-billion levels, so a result of ND means very little indeed was found.

Remember the unit: metals are reported in ppb, and some labs write that as µg/kg or ng/g. A lead result of "0.12 ppm" is 120 ppb, which is a pass.

Moisture, water activity, and foreign material

The water activity and moisture page of a COA — The water activity and moisture blocks of a flower COA, annotated: 0.56 aw against the 0.65 limit and 8.2% moisture against the 15% limit. Excerpt from a Method Testing Laboratories certificate for Sunburn's Maple Dunks flower, September 2026. See the complete certificate.

In plain English. These are the quality checks. Moisture content is how much of the flower's weight is water. Water activity (Aw) is different: it measures how much of that water is available for microbes to use, on a scale from 0 to 1. Water activity is the better predictor of whether mold can grow, which is why it applies to more product types than moisture does. Filth and foreign material is a visual inspection for things that should not be there: hair, insects, bits of packaging, processing waste, or visible mold.

Beyond compliance, these numbers hint at the experience. Very dry flower (say, under 8% moisture) can burn hot and lose aroma; flower near the top of the range carries more microbial risk and may feel spongy. Many growers aim for 10 to 12% moisture and 0.55 to 0.62 Aw.

Florida requires

Test	Limit	Applies to
Moisture content	Below 15.0% (a result of 15.0% or higher fails)	Flower, plus kief, bubble hash, and rosin
Water activity	0.65 Aw or less	Flower, plus kief, bubble hash, and rosin
Water activity	0.85 Aw or less	Derivative products and edibles, except products that list water as an ingredient
Filth and foreign material	No more than an average of 1% by weight, and covering no more than 10% of the sample area	All
Feces	None visible	All
Mold, mildew, or fungus	None visible	All

Moisture is reported to the nearest tenth of a percent and water activity to two significant figures. For flower, the lab must inspect both the inside and outside of the buds for foreign material. Moisture is only required for products tested to the flower standard, so a vape, tincture, or edible COA that shows moisture as "not tested" or "N/A" is complete; it is not missing anything. Solventless concentrates are the exception: because kief, ice-water (bubble) hash, and rosin (including live rosin) are made by separating trichomes mechanically with no solvent, Florida tests them exactly like flower, so their COAs should show a moisture result below 15.0% and a water activity of 0.65 Aw or less, not the looser 0.85 Aw limit that applies to solvent-based extracts.

A note for edible patients: servings, totals, and homogeneity

The homogeneity page from a multi-serving edible COA, with each serving's result, the average and the %RSD — An edible COA, annotated across three pages: the serving math, Total THC per container, a below-LOD cannabinoid, the label deviation and the homogeneity result. Excerpts from a Kaycha Labs certificate for GrowHealthy's MOODZ Papaya gels, September 2026. See the complete certificate.

Edible COAs deserve a second look because the numbers are about milligrams per serving, not percentages. A 10-piece gummy pack at 10 mg each is a 100 mg package; the percentage of THC by weight is tiny and tells you nothing useful. When reading an edible COA, check three things: the serving size, the mg of THC (and CBD) per serving, and the number of servings per package, so you know the total in the container.

Homogeneity is the edible-only test. It checks that the active ingredient is spread evenly through the batch, so that every piece of a ten-piece pack carries the same dose rather than one piece carrying most of it. The lab tests several individual servings, averages them, and calculates how much they vary. A small spread means consistent dosing.

Florida requires

A single serving, or a single-serving portion of a multi-serving edible, may contain no more than 10 mg of THC. A multi-serving edible may contain no more than 200 mg of Total Active THC per package. Edibles may vary up to 15% from those thresholds before failing.
Label accuracy for edibles is 15%: the tested Total THC, Total CBD, or any other labeled cannabinoid may differ from the label by no more than 15%.
Every multi-serving edible batch gets homogeneity testing. The number of units and servings tested scales with batch size: a batch of 1 to 249 units has 3 servings tested from 1 unit; a batch of 5,000 to 7,499 units has 28 servings tested from 14 units; the largest batches (90,000 to 100,000 units) have 50 servings tested from 25 units. A batch over 100,000 units is tested as multiple 100,000-unit batches.
The lab calculates the percent relative standard deviation (%RSD) of Total Active THC and Total Active CBD across all servings tested. A %RSD above 25%, or any single serving more than 50% off the average, fails homogeneity. The %RSD must be printed on the COA.
Edible potency is calculated using the measured weight of the product, and the lab must homogenize the whole product (without removing sugar coatings) before testing.

%RSD = (standard deviation of servings ÷ average of servings) × 100

So a pack whose tested servings read 9.8, 10.2, 10.0, 9.6, 10.4 mg has an average of 10.0 mg and a %RSD of about 3%: a well-made, evenly dosed product.

Red flags worth a second look

A few signals are worth a pause or a question at the counter:

Mismatched or missing batch number. The COA must correspond to your exact product batch. No match, no confidence.
An old test date, or an expired one. Florida COAs expire no more than one year after the sample date. Cannabinoids are fairly stable but still degrade slowly (THC converts to CBN over time), and terpenes fade faster. A report many months old may not reflect the current terpene character even if it is still valid.
No safety panel. A complete COA includes potency and every contaminant screen required for that product type. A potency-only sheet tells half the story.
A "R&D ONLY NOT FOR RETAIL" stamp. Labs also run research samples, and those COAs must be labeled as such. An R&D COA is not a compliance COA and cannot be used to sell product.
A retest or amendment note you cannot explain. Amended COAs are legal and must carry a bold notice plus a narrative of what changed. Read the narrative. A corrected label is routine; a changed contaminant result deserves a question.
Suspiciously round numbers. Real lab data is reported to three significant figures and shows natural variation. If everything reads like a tidy whole number, ask questions.
Flower above 32% Total THC. Not impossible, but Florida requires the lab to confirm any flower result above 32% with a second preparation and report it to the OMMU. It is a number worth checking against the strain's history.
A lab you do not recognize. Look for a Florida CMTL and an ISO/IEC 17025 reference. The OMMU publishes the list of certified labs.

Keep this in perspective. A passing COA is a meaningful safety signal, but it is not a personal medical guarantee, and a single failing analyte does not necessarily mean a product would have harmed any individual. Use the COA to inform your choices, and rely on your physician for medical guidance.

Do and don't: choosing medicine with a COA

Do

Match the batch number first. Everything else on the report depends on it.
Read the summary grid, then the details. PASS on every applicable test is the baseline; the detail pages tell you how clean.
Compare Total THC, not delta-9 THC, across flower. And compare Total CBD and the ratio for balanced or CBD-forward products.
Use the terpene profile as a fingerprint. Learning which terpene profiles work for you, and which do not, makes future choices more intuitive than strain names alone.
Check the serving math on edibles. Serving size × servings per package = total. Look at the %RSD for consistency.
Note the test date. Fresher is better for terpenes and for vapes.
Ask. MMTC staff are used to being asked for COAs. If a report cannot be produced, that is an answer too.

Don't

Don't assume percentage equals potency. A 30% flower is not necessarily a better experience than a 22% flower; terpenes, cannabinoid mix, freshness, and how you use it all matter.
Don't read a low delta-9 THC number on flower as "weak." Look at THCA and Total THC.
Don't treat Total Cannabinoids as a THC number. It is the sum of everything, including CBD, CBG, and the acids.
Don't skip the contaminant pages. ND across the board is the goal; a passing number close to a limit is worth knowing about.
Don't panic over a "J" or an asterisk. It marks a trace between the LOD and the LOQ: detected, estimated, and almost always far below the limit. It is a pass.
Don't compare across product types without adjusting. Inhaled and non-inhaled products are held to different limits, and flower is tested differently than concentrates.
Don't only consider the cannabinoids. The rest of the report is where the real information about safety and character lives.

Florida testing requirements at a glance

Every test Florida requires, by product type. "Flower" is Usable Whole Flower Marijuana (plus kief, bubble hash, and rosin); "inhaled" is a derivative product meant for inhalation (vapes, concentrates); "not inhaled" is a derivative product not meant for inhalation (tinctures, capsules, topicals); edibles are their own category.

Test	Flower	Inhaled	Not inhaled	Edibles	Key limits
Cannabinoid profile (11 cannabinoids)	Required	Required	Required	Required	Reported in mg/g and %, 3 sig. figs
Total Active THC and CBD (mg/package)	Required	Required	Required	Required	Flower > 32% THC must be confirmed
Label accuracy	Required	Required	Required	Required	10% (> 25 mg), 50% (≤ 25 mg), 15% for edibles
Terpenes	Voluntary	Voluntary	Voluntary	Voluntary	No state limit; reported as received
Microbials (STEC, Salmonella, 4 Aspergillus spp.)	Required	Required	Required	Required	None present in 1 g
Listeria monocytogenes	Required	–	–	Required	None present in 1 g
Total yeast and mold	Required	Required	Required	Required	< 100,000 CFU/g (< 10 for transmucosal)
Mycotoxins (aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, G2, sum; ochratoxin A)	Required	Required	Required	Required	< 20 ppb each
Residual solvents (21)	–	Required	Required	Required	Two limit columns; see table above
Heavy metals (Pb, As, Cd, Hg, Ni, Sn)	Required	Required	Required	Required	Pb < 500 ppb all; others vary by route
Agricultural agents (66)	Required	Required	Required	Required	Two limit columns; total load < 5 / 30 ppm
Water activity	Required	Required	Required	Required	≤ 0.65 Aw flower; ≤ 0.85 Aw others
Moisture	Required	–	–	–	Below 15.0%
Filth and foreign material	Required	Required	Required	Required	≤ 1% by weight, ≤ 10% of area; no visible feces or mold
Homogeneity (%RSD)	–	–	–	Multi-serving only	%RSD ≤ 25%; no serving > 50% off average
Serving and package caps	–	–	–	Required	10 mg THC/serving; 200 mg/package (±15%)

Rules behind this page. Florida Administrative Code Chapter 64-4: Rule 64-4.300 (definitions, including Total Active THC), 64-4.301 (lab certification and the testing fields for each matrix), 64-4.308 (sample testing and every acceptable limit), 64-4.311 (what a COA must contain), all effective May 28, 2026; Rule 64-4.212 (MMTC compliance testing) and 64-4.013 (pesticide use). These permanent rules replaced emergency rules 64ER20-39 (sample testing) and related 64ER20-series rules that governed testing from 2020 until 2026. Two transition periods matter for COAs you read in 2026: labs had 60 days from May 28, 2026 to begin reporting Listeria, nickel, and tin, and have one year to add delta-8 THC to the Total Active THC calculation.

This page will be updated as the rules change. If a COA you are reading uses a limit different from the ones above, the COA reflects the rule in force on its test date, and the limit printed on the COA is the one that applied.

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How to read a Certificate of Analysis (COA)

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Florida requires

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Florida requires

Page 1: the header and the results summary

Florida requires

Potency: the cannabinoid panel

Florida requires

The terpene profile

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Florida requires

Microbials and mycotoxins

Florida requires (all product types unless noted)

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Florida requires testing of derivative products for these 21 solvents

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Florida requires screening for these 66 agricultural agents

Heavy metals

Florida requires testing every product type for six metals

Moisture, water activity, and foreign material

Florida requires

A note for edible patients: servings, totals, and homogeneity

Florida requires

Red flags worth a second look

Do and don't: choosing medicine with a COA

Do

Don't

Florida testing requirements at a glance

Products to review

Hints from the Master Product Guide

Filed as infused pre-rolls

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Reported prices

Where the automatic reading was wrong