How to be sure pot is produced safely. There are food safety standards and audits that are in place to ensure that the food we purchase is safe. Implementing similar protocols for cannabis production is a necessary step toward normalizing the plant. Tyler Williams, the recently appointed CEO of ASI Food Safety, joins Dan Humiston to talk about helping states develop, implement and monitor cannabis safety standards. Produced by PodConx MJBulls - https://podconx.com/podcasts/raising-cannabis-capital Dan Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/dan-humiston ASI Food Safety - https://asifood.com/ Tyler Williams - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-williams-63925a103/
How to be sure pot is produced safely.
There are food safety standards and audits that are in place to ensure that the food we purchase is safe. Implementing similar protocols for cannabis production is a necessary step toward normalizing the plant. Tyler Williams, the recently appointed CEO of ASI Food Safety, joins Dan Humiston to talk about helping states develop, implement and monitor cannabis safety standards.
MJBulls - https://podconx.com/podcasts/raising-cannabis-capital
Dan Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/dan-humiston
ASI Food Safety - https://asifood.com/
Tyler Williams - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-williams-63925a103/
[00:00:00]
Dan Humiston: Today at MJ Bulls, we are joined by Tyler Williams, the recently appointed c e o of a s i, food safety. Tyler, welcome back to the show,
Tyler Williams: Thanks, man. I'm glad to be here.
Dan Humiston: First off, congratulations. I understand that you are the youngest CEO in your company, 75 year history. That's that's quite an accomplishment. Well deserved.
Tyler Williams: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I don't really think age, age matters, but people keep telling me, kudos for that. So I'll, I'll take it where I can.
Dan Humiston: Well, guys, it's, it's a major accomplishment and you're being humble right now because you've done a lot of work to get you to this spot where we are right now. We have a lot to talk about. And so I'm just going to, I'm just gonna jump right in. When I go to a grocery store, I'm never wondering if this food is safe.
And that's because there are standards and then there are audits in place to make sure that those standards are adhered to. And that's what I wanna talk about today, and that's what, [00:01:00] because you're an expert at this, and so I wanna really take a deep dive into that. Before I do, let's talk a little bit about your company.
Or should say companies, plural, how are they set up? What each company's role is within the organization?
Tyler Williams: at the, at the top of the food chain, if you will, is, is our company asi, L l C that's our holding company. Underneath that, there's, there's three separate legal entities. , we refer to 'em as divisions. The first one is, is ASI Food Safety, where we conduct all of our audits and accredited certifications.
Then there's ASI training and consult. It does exactly what it, it says in the name. It's training and consulting. And then we have ASI Global Standards. And ASI global Standards is a, is a standard developer. And that's where C S Q, my, my Baby cannabis safety and quality are cannabis standard that we developed for the industry kind of sits underneath that as well as other standards that we develop for various different industries, whether they're emerging industries or, or long-standing existing industries.[00:02:00]
Dan Humiston: , so your organization or would be responsible for setting those standards and then making sure that. Through the audits that those standards are being adhered to. Back to my grocery store story, even though I don't worry about it, occasionally you'll hear, say for instance, lettuce, there's a recall on lettuce, and that's pretty common.
It's unfortunately you hear at least once a year are, are we starting to see the same thing with recalls in cannabis?
Tyler Williams: Yeah, exactly that. I tell people, and, and especially from the standard developer side, we're licensing that standard out to other certification bodies as well. And a and a big question that I get all the time is, well, this, this is very risky. It's, it's a new market. Cannabis is kind of in a gray area.
and how I explain it to people is it's, it's, there's risk there. Yes, of course. But it would, I would say it's less risky than food. And the reason being is because if we have a food recall, let's say craft or, or somebody, those are [00:03:00] thousands of products across. Thousands of stores across several states where cannabis, of course we're trying to get to the point where we're selling across state lines, but if you have a recall, there is a very small area, very small amount of people that's affected by that.
So, , while it is very similar, I would say the risk with food is much bigger because of just the, the target market and the amount of products that are, that are being distributed where cannabis is such a small level. So where we have an isolated incident in one state or city, Food is on a, a more global level.
but you're absolutely correct. It, it's, it's very similar. What we're seeing in food is kind of trickling in cannabis and, and that's why we're taking our expertise in the food industry and trying to bring that to cannabis and say, Hey, these industries have been doing this for years.
let's not reinvent the wheel. Let's, let's start where we know we can at least ensure these products are safe for consumers.
Dan Humiston: Yeah, it makes sense. It makes sense. But you know, back to you, even though it's not across nationwide, because of the way that our, our industry is, is, is [00:04:00] built, it's still very expensive and disruptive for a company to have one. So, Really in , all company's best interests, to have these standards in place , and to be certified.
Cuz , that could wipe out a company.
Tyler Williams: A absolutely, , and, the big guys can handle it a little bit better than the little guys. And so , that's one of the things that we're trying to kind of change in the industry where you have these big MSOs who they have experienced people coming from pharma, coming from the food industry, coming from dietary supplements.
So they're used to implementing these types of standards. Right. So they're. Got the wheels in motion. Now it's time to not focus on the big guys and focus on the little guys, because those are the ones that I'm worried about, right? The mom and pop craft grow, , that really doesn't know what they're doing.
They're, they're trying to do the right thing, but they just need a nudge in the right direction. , and so now it's, it's trying to convince those smaller operators the, the importance of this, because you're right, if they have a. Their company could go just flat out broken, be out of business. Whereas the big guys, yeah, they'll get a black [00:05:00] guy, they'll, they'll pay a lot of money and, and lawyers and insurance and, and this and that.
But it's the small guys that are, are really taking a hit. If, if there's an issue.
Dan Humiston: I'm gonna take this, continue on this thread for just a second longer. you are a , a small craft grower, and there's a recall not only the cost of the recall, but the continuing cost of the, the, the public would be recognized. And I'm going to rev revert back to a story that I don't even know if this, I'm not sure if you told me this or where.
Pre-rolls were take, were pulled off the shelf because they, the company used people to lick 'em, to get 'em. So if I knew that that company did that, I may never buy from that company again.
Tyler Williams: No, no. And actually I think that company is, is no longer in business. Speaking of that, and I think it was not just that incident, but a, a, a couple of other incidents as well. And I believe that was up in Michigan. But you're a hundred percent right. And that's , a great example of, it's, it's probably one of those things.
This is how they did it in , the illicit market. , and so bringing that knowledge over, , you're [00:06:00] not thinking about those things. And that's what we're trying to say is like, hold up now. It's not just, Joe's selling this on the street anymore. , we're a legit industry.
We're selling this to, to consumers. And if you're in a medical market, you're selling to a lot of people who are immunocompromised. And that's the big worry right there is. , the people that have cancer or. Epilepsy that are using this to curb their side effects or, or help , their symptoms.
, those are the people that we're most concerned about.
Dan Humiston: Yeah. Well, and you, that's a really good point. You make a really good point there. We talked about the complexity of our industry be every state's a little bit different, , and I'm assuming that the standards in each state are probably a little bit different and. This leads me to, to recent news.
There's something that happened in Missouri , they recently, , issued a new emergency standards change. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Tyler Williams: Yeah. Yeah. So Missouri this is my home state by the way, so we're now rec so it's you, if you would've asked me this 10 years ago, I would've said Missouri recreational Cannabis noway. But we, we did it. We've got an awesome association [00:07:00] here that, that put that together.
So, kudos to them. But yeah, so the emergency rules just came out, couple days ago actually. And . They are actually requiring all of the existing medical facilities as well as all of the new micro businesses that will be coming online for rec to be certified , to various different industry standards.
C S Q being one of those. , so ISO is another one. A S T M, for example, is another one. So if, if you're familiar with standards, A S T M and ISO are very involved in the cannabis industry as. , this is the first time that C S Q has been actually written into the rules. , and so we're glad to see that and glad to see Missouri as, as seeing standards and certification as a way to pass the burden on from state regulators.
To private industry to make sure that these guys are doing what they're supposed to be doing because on our side of it, we've been doing this for years in food and pharma and dietary supplements. So why not use these types of experts to go in and make sure these facilities are doing the right thing?
Dan Humiston: Yeah. . We talked about [00:08:00] it with produce, it's pretty commonplace. We wanna be like everybody else, so we need to do it the way everybody else does it. because a lot of our listeners are investors are always looking for opportunities. , are any of your divisions or companies in the, in the raising mode and or, or is there any potential down the road where people can participate , in your organization?
Tyler Williams: Yeah, so we we just went through a merger, so I think , we're good for now, but it I will leave the door open, so if anybody wants to reach out to me feel free. But yeah, I think for the time being we're good. But I'll always listen to offers.
Dan Humiston: Well, you're, you're one of the few that are good and I, I know why, because you're, you. What you do is so important and then, and we're really lucky that we have you in the industry doing this. I'm gonna have all of the links to C s Q and ASI in the show notes and everything else. And if so, if anybody wants. Learn more about , what they're doing or maybe imp implement this into their organizations. I'm sure somebody from Tyler's team would be happy to speak with you. Tyler's, thanks again for being on [00:09:00] the show. It's great to catch up. , And, and, um, also, thanks for keeping us safe. This is a really important thing that you're doing.
Tyler Williams: Yeah. Thanks man. Anytime.
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