Sanitation Program for Medical Marihuana

On June 5, 2015 AAPS hosted a Sanitation Program for Medical Marijuana Workshop. Led by AAPS’ Food Safety and Quality program coordinator, Pirouz Yousefian, the workshop was constructed to guide participants through Division 4 of the MMPR, Good Production Practices.

Attendees were guided through the sanitation requirements suitable for Licensed Producers of Medical Marijuana and instructed on how to write, develop and install an effective sanitation program to ensure and maintain cleanly conditions.

Preventative vs Reactive
When it comes to dealing with contamination in laboratory settings, it is important to be implementing preventative measures rather than reactive. “Installing and developing an organized system is more cost effective,” says Pirouz.  Thus, the workshop educated attendees on effective cleaning strategies, sanitation methods and pre-operational inspection procedures that are designed to minimize the risk of contamination in ingredients, processing aids, packaging materials and equipment.

Three Sources of Contamination
The three primary sources of contamination are raw materials, equipment and people. Controlling hazards, be they chemical, biological or physical are necessary in the development of a sanitation program. Pirouz highlighted strategies and methods to prevent and respond to various types of contamination associated with the licensed production of medical marihuana.

Creating an Effective Sanitation Program for Your Facility
The workshop touched on the importance of creating a sanitation program appropriate for each attendees’ respective facility.  Production facilities and operating procedures vary thus learning how to approach contributing factors to contamination such as waste disposal are unique to each production environment.

Monitoring and Verification of Your Sanitation Program
Testing the effectiveness of any sanitation program is just as important as its development. Regular assessment of sanitation programs are necessary to ensure that the program is being practiced properly.  Regulatory officials such as Health Canada are prone to surprise inspection of production facilities thus ensuring a strong sanitation system is in place is vital to this industry.  Attendees were instructed on how to evaluate and test the strength of their sanitation programs to maintain cleanliness and keep the quality of their product intact.

Interested in partaking in the next workshop?  Visit our website for more information on AAPS’ and .