Review Finds Many Hemp and CBD Products Sold on Amazon Mislabeled

A report published last week by CBD Oracle found hemp products sold via Amazon were deceptively labeled, with 30% containing undeclared CBD, 36% containing no hemp at all – not even hempseed oil – three of the 56 products containing large doses of delta-8 THC, and about half making an unapproved medical claim.   

To conduct the study, CBD Oracle purchased 56 products from Amazon in December 2023 and January 2024. The products were chosen based on a search for “cbd gummies,” “hemp” and similar terms used by brands, such as “delta gummies.” In all, the review included 45 gummies, eight tinctures, two topical creams, and one pack of mints. The products were available despite Amazon’s official policy banning them. The products were sent to InfiniteCal Labs for testing. 

In a statement, Erik Paulson, PhD, lab manager at InfiniteCAL, said people buying hemp or CBD products from Amazon believing they will derive some benefit are “essentially rolling the dice.” 

“You could be getting CBD-infused products, THC-infused products, hempseed oil-infused products,” he said in a press release, “or it’s very likely you would be getting a product with no hemp in it at all.” 

Of the 17 products that contained CBD, the review found “quite a lot of variation” in the amount of CBD per package. One product contained just 28 milligrams per package while another contained 1,582 milligrams. Another 62.5% contained no cannabinoids at all, while 43% “contained no hemp of any kind,” the report says. Moreover, six products contained detectable levels of THC, and three contained very high concentrations of delta-8 THC with the three highest being measured as 641 milligrams, 2,507 milligrams, and 3,028 milligrams. 

“96% of products either didn’t give dosage information or gave dosage information that was inaccurate. On average, the products in the study contained just 25% of the promised dosage in terms of cannabinoids. While the ‘dose’ specified usually didn’t say what exactly it measured, customers would likely assume this referred to cannabinoids in the context of a hemp gummy.” — Amazon’s Hemp Market: An Independent Analysis 

The report notes that all five products that claimed they had been tested for safety were found to have a clean lab report during the CBD Oracle review. 

Of the more than half of products that made unapproved medical claims, those claims were linked to sleep, anxiety, and even the common cold, while some product pages included an image of a body part with red patches or other signifiers of what the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) calls “abnormal tissue” which is meant to imply the products provides relief for those areas. 

CBD Oracle estimates that Amazon’s hemp market generates about $64 million per year despite its official ban, but it could be worth as much as $125 million per year.