Following a year of submissions and reviews by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, central Indiana’s Agrozen Life Sciences announced that it is expanding business operations by launching Agrozen Labs, now a certified U.S. Department of Agriculture analytical hemp testing laboratory. Agrozen Labs also recently achieved Schedule I Cannabis Testing certification from the DEA and is now an approved hemp-testing laboratory through the USDA’s Domestic Hemp Production Program.
In conjunction with the USDA and DEA approvals, Agrozen Labs is the first hemp cooperative analytical testing laboratory approved through the Seed Section of the Office of Indiana State Chemist at Purdue University.
The Agrozen Labs announcement follows word that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved the Indiana State Hemp plan for commercially growing and processing hemp, a crop that is widely used to produce textiles, rope, carpet, paper, building materials, food, and more.
Hemp production in Indiana is licensed to some 280 growers who farm more than 8,900 acres of the crop. Farmers are required to have hemp crops tested before harvest and Agrozen becomes one of only about 50 such certified testing labs in the entire country.
"The Agrozen Labs team is honored to be the first hemp testing laboratory certified in the State of Indiana by USDA, as well as the first state-certified lab to be working in the hemp industry. We’re very pleased to have the involvement of the Seed Section of the Office of Indiana State Chemist, which is based at Purdue, and is working to develop new markets for Hoosier farmers," said Brian Schroeder, co-founder and CEO for Agrozen Life Sciences. "Our hemp testing process and analytical equipment are managed by a pharmaceutical scientist with more than three decades of experience, and our lab can now produce consistent and reliable results for farmers, extractors, formulators, and finished goods suppliers," he adds.
"The Office of Indiana State Chemist is looking forward to working with Agrozen Life Sciences as a cooperating hemp laboratory. Agrozen Life Sciences has built their laboratory with full transparency to the State Chemist while hitting important milestones, such as obtaining a DEA Schedule I registration," adds Carrie Leach, Quality Assurance Director for OISC. "It has been a pleasure working with Agrozen Life Sciences building this mutually beneficial relationship that will help hemp growers," she added.
