Vermont: from farm to shop shelf, what the label has to show

Step by step: Vermont

1. Step 1: Harvest lot, numbered by the Board (Cultivator) A licensed cultivator records each harvest lot through forms on the Board’s online portal, which prefixes the license number (for example CLTV1234-001-001 for a process lot). One lot may mix several cultivars. This becomes the label’s process lot, the cultivator name and license and the harvested-on date.
2. Step 2: The cultivator submits samples (Cultivator) The cultivator submits samples to a licensed lab with a form naming the process lot and strain; a COA without them cannot support a product registration. Each cultivar is tested on its own for potency and pathogens, but the lab may pool up to five cultivars for the pesticide screen.
3. Step 3: Licensed lab (Testing laboratory) A Board-licensed lab, holding lab accreditation or certification under the Agency of Agriculture’s Cannabis Quality Control Program, tests smokable flower for potency, STEC, Salmonella and four Aspergillus molds, pesticides and water activity (0.65 or lower). The grow’s soil is tested for heavy metals every three years.
4. Step 4: COA and potency (Testing laboratory) The COA unlocks the label’s potency, calculated as total THC (THC plus 0.877 × THCA, dry weight, two significant figures). The lab result may differ from the label claim by no more than 20%, and flower above 30% THC cannot be offered for retail sale.
5. Step 5: Pass / fail (Cannabis Control Board) Licensees must report failures, and even quantifiable pesticide traces below the action limit, to the Board. Product adulterated with a food-crop pesticide may be remediated at most twice, and its label must then say so, with pre- and post-remediation results on any COA shown to consumers. Aspergillus-remediated cannabis may never be sold as flower.
6. Step 6: Registered with the Board (Cannabis Control Board) Before a retailer may buy it, the product needs an active registration with the Board, filed by whoever puts it in its final form; bulk flower is registered by the retailer instead. Registration is how the Board checks the label, the packaging and the COAs.
7. Step 7: Package + label (Cultivator) Consumer packaging must be reusable and not plastic, and child-deterrent for flower. The label carries the yellow CONTAINS THC triangle and the red NOT SAFE FOR KIDS octagon (each at least ½″), strain, variety, weight, potency, harvested-on and packed-on dates, a web address or QR code to the test results, and the Board’s full warning.
8. Step 8: Retail sale (Retailer) The retailer checks the registration is active and sells to adults 21 and over. Bulk flower may be weighed out at the counter, up to 28 grams, into a reusable child-deterrent container, and retailers may take back packaging to sanitize and reuse.