Following is a conversation with Leah D’Ambrosio, co-founder of BakedSmart and Sconed Edibles, about her efforts to legitimize the edible industry and promote responsible use.
What was the impetus for creating Cannacals?
Michael Treadway and I started a small edible company, Sconed, in 2015 and from it’s inception we knew there was no way we wanted to have our edibles out and not have them marked. We looked for different solutions but found there really wasn’t anyone creating a way to mark edibles that was affordable and easy to use.
Seeing a need for a way to mark our edibles, we met with a manufacturer who has bene making bakery decorations for 60 years. They created edible images with a green cross design for us to use on our toffee and agree to partner with us to provide other edible companies a way to mark their edibles. About the same time our green cross designs were coming out, Colorado’s law that all edibles be marked with a diamond and THC! went into effect. So, we started supplying edible companies selling edibles in Colorado with our Cannacals in this design.
It was pretty shocking to us that the issue of having cannabis infused foods sold that look exactly like regular food was not being addressed. There are all sorts of rules and regulations about packaging but my biggest question was happens when they are outside of the package? How would anyone ever know a brownie is infused unless it’s marked right on the brownie? This was a serious issue to us and we wanted to do something to help prevent accidental consumption.
What are the different products that you offer for sale?
We have commercial products for edible companies to use on baked goods, candies, chocolates, and gummies. Commercial products include12”x17″ flood sheet designs, targets which are simply cut out images that can be used in molds or on cookie sheets and transfers for chocolates, gummies, caramels, and hard candies. We also have home kits of our target and transfers for consumers to use at home when making edibles.
Explain how one can use Cannacals.
Cannacals are super easy to use. For both DIY and commercial chocolatiers, our transfer sheets can be used in molds or they can easily be laid on top of the chocolate in the mold and once the chocolate dries, they can peel off the acetate backing. For the targets and sheets, you can easily place them in the pan or on the cookie sheet and pour the batter on and bake. For DIY chefs, you can use our products just like the commercial edible companies OR you can even use them on edibles you purchase at the dispensary. For instance, if you purchased some cookies at the dispensary and want to make sure that even out of the package your roommate, parents, spouse, children, know that cookie is infused, you can apply our target to the cookie using just a tiny drop of water. Our products are moisture activated so once the target is applied to the cookie with water, it will adhere. Let it dry for a couple of seconds and then you have a cookie that is marked with a green cross Cannacal. Cannacals are made with sugar, cornstarch and edible food dye and are completely safe. They do not change the taste or the texture of the food product they are applied to.
What is the Green Cross Initiative?
A green cross is a universal symbol for medicine Children as young as 3 can associate meaning to a symbol and whenever people see products with the green cross on it, they intuitively know it is the sign for THC! Right now, the green cross initiative is small but we hope with funding, we can continue our efforts to educate state governments and the public on the need to support the green cross as a universal symbol on all cannabis infused foods. You don’t want to go to one state and see the letters THC and then go to a different state and see a pot leaf. States and consumers need to come together and agree on a truly universal symbol. We hope the Green Cross Initiative helps with that or at the very least gives them reasons why the green cross makes sense.
-
Related Story: Weed As The New Craft Beer? This Bud’s For You
With legalization comes great responsibility. As an industry, the only way to help remove the stigma we currently bear is to show that we care about consumers and the public. That we care about accidental consumption. One of the ways of doing this is by marking all of our edibles so that it is obvious when a food product is infused.
