How quality systems shape edible production

Creating a successful edible requires more than developing an appealing flavor.

For Dave Owens, Director of Culinary at Proper Cannabis, the process requires control over potency, ingredient performance, food safety, texture, shelf stability, and commercial-scale production. Each step must be repeatable, documented, and evaluated to ensure the finished product meets the same standards from one batch to the next.

That level of consistency depends on a quality management system, or QMS. At Proper, the system supporting edible production is certified through Cannabis Safety and Quality, commonly known as CSQ.

“When you’re producing food that’s ready to eat, it’s got to be safe,” Owens continued. “It was a big, important area for us to focus on.”

Consistency begins before production

The process begins with product development and the selection of ingredients that can perform consistently at scale.

Owens built Honeybee around fruit purees, juices, chocolate, and flavors selected for both quality and repeatability. A formulation must deliver the intended taste and texture, but the manufacturer must also be able to source its ingredients reliably and understand how each one behaves during production.

“I was really wanting to source from all over the world to find the best products that I could to put into the gumdrops or the chocolate bars,” Owens said.

The goal is to produce an edible that remains recognizable to consumers regardless of when it was manufactured or purchased.

“We’re going to source the best ingredients, make the best product, it’s going to taste great, and people are going to come to rely on it,” Owens explained. “They can get something in February and buy it again in December, and it’s going to be just as great. That’s what we’ve really strived for: consistency and quality.”

Using real fruit creates additional production considerations. Natural ingredients can vary in acidity, moisture, sweetness, and other characteristics that affect how a formulation behaves.

Those variables must be understood before a recipe can become a dependable commercial product.

Incorporating cannabis introduces another layer of precision.

It is not enough for a full batch to contain the correct total amount of THC. The infused ingredient must be distributed evenly so that individual pieces contain approximately the dose stated on the package.

“It was a steep learning curve, really about the dosing and getting that correct,” Owens recalled. “That took me a little bit to get my head around, and working with our lab to make sure that we were getting dosing correct, that it was homogeneous, that if it said 5 milligrams in that gumdrop, there was right around 5 milligrams in there.”

Achieving that consistency requires control over measurements, mixing, temperature, timing, portioning, and other production variables. A change in one step can affect the performance of the entire batch.

That makes documented standard operating procedures essential. Employees need clear instructions for completing each step, while managers need records showing whether the established process was followed.

“Once we got things settled, SOPs in place, some failed batches, some very successful batches, and got that figured out, things have been a lot better,” he told Greenway. “It gives us room to do other projects.”

Formulation requires control over multiple variables

Honeybee’s pectin gumdrops demonstrate how small formulation changes can influence a finished product.

Unlike gelatin-based gummies, pectin formulations are particularly sensitive to acidity. Because Honeybee uses real fruit purees and juices, the pH of an ingredient can affect when the pectin begins to gel and whether the finished gumdrop develops its intended texture.

“We did have a struggle with using those real fruits,” Owens acknowledged. “If you don’t have the pH correct, they’re going to sweat a little bit.”

The team determined that the acidity of the fruit ingredients was causing the pectin to begin setting too early. It adjusted the formulation and incorporated a buffering agent to better control the pH.

“We had some operational misses that caused us a little bit of a headache, but we got through it,” Owens said.

That experience illustrates why commercial edible production cannot rely exclusively on a recipe. A manufacturer must be able to identify the variables contributing to a problem, make a controlled adjustment, document the change, and determine whether the correction produces the intended result.

Temperature, acidity, moisture, mixing, and ingredient performance can all affect texture and shelf stability. Potency adds another variable that must remain consistent throughout the same process.

Standard operating procedures explain how individual tasks should be completed. A quality management system connects those procedures into a larger framework for managing production, food safety, documentation, training, and continuous improvement.

A QMS helps a manufacturer establish its production standards, document whether they were followed, identify deviations, investigate their causes, and verify corrective actions.

At Proper, that system is certified through CSQ. Owens advocated for a formal quality program after working with Safe Quality Food, or SQF, systems in conventional food manufacturing.

“There’s another scheme called SQF, Safe Quality Food, that a lot of the big food players, in fact almost all the big food players, use,” Owens explained. “If I’m a supplier to a Walmart or a Costco, I have to go through an SQF audit and get certified with Safe Quality Food, and then they’ll do business with me.”

He believed edible manufacturers needed a comparable framework for demonstrating that food-safety and quality practices were supported by documented processes and independent evaluation.

“I said, ‘We’ve got to have something like that to show the consumers that this is third party, and we can show the consumers that we are really serious about food safety.'”

Missouri requires licensed cannabis businesses to implement a QMS based on a recognized published standard. CSQ is one available standard, but it is not the only option.

For Owens, the broader importance lies in operating under a structured system rather than reacting to problems as isolated production failures.

A QMS does not operate independently once its policies and procedures have been written.

It requires employees to follow established processes, complete records, monitor production, report deviations, and participate in corrective actions. Managers must review the system and ensure that it continues to reflect what is happening on the production floor.

   

“Now that things are in place, it’s not running on its own.

“We keep it up, keep the system up, and make sure we’re doing what we need to do every day.”

In edible production, that daily work can include verifying measurements, monitoring temperatures and acidity, maintaining sanitation controls, reviewing ingredient performance, documenting batches, confirming potency results, and investigating unexpected outcomes.

The value of the system depends on whether those requirements are consistently applied.

Proper’s CSQ certification provides an outside assessment of the system, but certification is not the end of the quality process. The audit evaluates the framework, while the manufacturer remains responsible for executing it during everyday operations.

Quality control extends beyond the production kitchen.

Suppliers, inventory, storage, and ingredient availability can all affect whether a manufacturer can reproduce an established formulation. Substituting an ingredient because the original is unavailable may change the flavor, texture, moisture, acidity, or shelf stability of the finished product.

Owens said Honeybee prioritizes recognizable ingredients and avoids artificial colors and flavors when developing products.

“You want an ingredient deck that’s readable to folks, even if they’re not a food scientist or a chef; you want your mom to be able to pick it up and say, ‘OK, I’m OK with this.’”

Maintaining those standards has become more difficult as the prices of chocolate, fruit products, flavorings, and other ingredients fluctuate.

“The chocolate market went crazy because the price of cacao was mostly driven by speculators and some bad weather.

“We had tariffs because we buy a lot of things from Europe and other parts of the world.”

At the same time, cannabis companies operate in a market where retail prices generally face downward pressure.

“We’ve mostly absorbed things because, in the cannabis market, you can’t raise the price,” Owens explained. “We’re trying to give the best product for the best value to a consumer. The margins can become thin when something goes up 40%.”

Careful purchasing, production planning, and inventory management allow a manufacturer to control expenses without making unplanned changes that compromise the established product.

Those controls also help prevent overproduction and reduce the risk of ingredients or finished products reaching the end of their useful shelf life before they can be used or sold.

Quality systems support product development

Process control does not eliminate creativity. Owens believes it gives culinary teams a more dependable foundation for experimentation.

When the team understands how its ingredients, equipment, and formulations behave, it can develop new flavors while preserving the standards expected from existing products.

Owens keeps potential products in development so the company can respond when its sales, marketing, or ownership teams identify an opportunity.

“I try to keep things in my back pocket that I’m always working on, so that when the marketing team, sales team, or ownership team says, ‘We need a new flavor,’ there it is,” Owens said.

Each concept must still move from an initial culinary idea to a repeatable production process. The team must determine whether the formulation can be manufactured consistently, dosed accurately, sourced reliably, and maintained throughout its expected shelf life.

A successful prototype demonstrates that an idea can work. A successful commercial process demonstrates that it can work repeatedly.

Preparing for changing requirements

Owens also sees an established QMS as a foundation for responding to future regulatory changes.

The eventual federal treatment of cannabis edibles remains uncertain. Future requirements could resemble those applied to conventional food, dietary supplements, pharmaceuticals, or a cannabis-specific regulatory category.

CSQ certification cannot guarantee compliance with regulations that have not yet been established. A functioning QMS, however, gives a company an existing structure for managing policies, procedures, training, records, audits, and corrective actions.

“If we’ve got to pivot or do anything else, we already have a base to stand on,” Owens explained. “A lot of this stuff is done. If they require anything else, then we can do it.”

For Owens, the central question is whether cannabinoid products will eventually be regulated more like conventional foods or subjected to pharmaceutical-style controls.

“Does it become pharmacy, pharmacopeia-type things, or does it become just regular food?” he asked. “You can see where it could go either way when we start talking about additions of things going into food like THC, CBD, THCV, or whatever it might be.”

Regardless of the regulatory model, manufacturers with established systems may be better positioned to evaluate new requirements and incorporate them into their existing operations.

The product reflects the process

Consumers may never see the records, procedures, testing, training, and corrective actions behind an edible. They experience the result through its taste, texture, potency, and consistency.

For Owens, those characteristics are connected. A product cannot reliably deliver a good experience unless the manufacturing process is capable of reproducing it.

A QMS gives manufacturers a framework for managing that process, but its effectiveness depends on what happens during production each day.

“It continues to let those consumers know that we’re a good company to do business with,” Owens said. “It makes sense to use our products because of our food-safety program, quality management systems, and consistency.”

In a crowded edible market, Owens believes the process ultimately supports the qualities that distinguish the finished product.

“Great taste, great effect, and consistency are the hallmarks of what we’re trying to achieve.”