B.C.-based Anandia Laboratories Inc. recently opened a brand-new headquarters in Vancouver’s bustling technology core.

The rapidly-expanding company tests batches of cannabis from licensed producers to ensure their safety. It has doubled in size over the past year since federal legalization came into force. (Heads up to cannabis industry job seekers — they’re hiring)

Health Canada regulations require each batch of cannabis from a licensed producer (LP) to undergo safety testing for potentially harmful substances such as mold, yeast, and bacteria — not to mention the recent larger contaminants such as rubber, a pencil, and a few loose nuts and bolts.

“Medical patients want to make sure that they’re not inhaling mold spores,” Anandia vice-president of business development Lana Culley told CTV. “If you have a suppressed immune system that could definitely cause you issues.”

The company also tests for nearly 100 banned pesticides, as LPs are only permitted to use a very limited number of products to fight off infestations.

For instance, New Brunswick-based LP Organigram came under fire when medical patients claimed the company sold them flower in 2016 that was tainted with prohibited pesticides (myclobutanil and/or bifenazate, to be specific). The company lost its organic certification for a period and is now the subject of a class-action lawsuit.

“Inhaling pesticides sends them directly to your lungs, and we can hypothesize that the damage can be severe,” said Culley.

If a batch of cannabis fails a screening, it can be treated and then retested by the lab — but it’s often declared unsafe and unfit for human consumption.

Anandia has a robot named Janice, that has the capacity to test samples with expedited efficiency leaving no room for human error, and also a set of chambers that can determine best-before dates.

Now the company is gearing up for the second wave of cannabis products that include edibles, topicals, and extracts that may hit the shelves as soon as mid-December. And if the recent vape panic is any indication, Anandia won’t be running out of work anytime soon.