5 Concerns With Justin Singer, CEO & Co-Founder Of Caliper Foods

Warren Bobrow=WB: Please inform me where you are from?

Justin Vocalist=JS: I grew up in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan and went to school in Ann Arbor, so marijuana was always around. Maturing, my parents never ever demonized pot. In truth, they were clear that they ‘d rather I smoke pot than drink alcohol (to be reasonable, they were also clear that they ‘d strongly prefer I do neither throughout high school). Nowadays, I take in THC for relaxation. As I’ve aged, I can get a hangover simply by taking a look at beer, so THC seems like a much healthier alternative.

WB: Please inform me about your business? What do they produce? Is it noted with the FDA? What are your ideas on stigmas in cannabis?

JS: Caliper Foods is a consumer-packaged goods company that produces safe and standardized hemp-derived soluble cannabinoids for both consumers and manufacturers alike. Our core product for customers is Caliper CBD, a single-dose package of specifically 20 mg of CBD suspended in clean-label, zero-calorie dissolvable powder. Caliper’s B2B arm, Caliper Components, provides a suite of application-specific solutions of soluble, hemp-derived cannabinoids tuned to a range of wet and dry food systems and supported by strenuous rack stability trials and pharmacokinetic research studies. Finally, our sis business, Stillwater Brands, produces comparable products to THC customers in Colorado. They offer a dissolvable powder called Ripple, a suite of gummies, and a soon-to-launch line of QuickSticks that liquify right on your tongue.

As a company, we distinguish ourselves through our viewpoint. Our company believe cannabinoids represent a new classification of functional active ingredients, which has actually informed our technique from the beginning. Uniquely in this sector, we’re a food company first, and a cannabis business second. Our company is staffed with food scientists and production experts culled from a few of the country’s leading CPG brand names, business like M&M/ Mars, Danone, WhiteWave, Church & Dwight. We’ve invested greatly in food safety, quality assurance, and label accuracy from the start, regardless of the FDA’s refusal to exercise oversight of the space, and we continue to invest considerably on scientific research with public universities to validate our pharmacokinetic claims (e.g., absorption rate). Our facility is registered with the FDA, however consumers should not take that as proof of anything significant. What matters is oversight. Until the FDA accepts duty for regulating CBD items as foods or supplements and holds manufacturers accountable for following GMPs and corroborating claims, consumers will remain at risk.

When we initially started this company back in 2014, my grandmother– someone who adamantly didn’t “do drugs”– asked me for a pot brownie, not due to the fact that she wanted to get high but since she wanted to feel better. Ultimately, the illicit nature of everything was too much and she couldn’t bring herself to attempt it. Moments like that became the inspiration behind our first product, Stillwater Tea, a micro-dosed THC beverage particularly designed to feel acceptable to a generation raised on “Reefer Insanity”. No one takes a look at a cup of tea and believes “drugs,” but there was the psychological barrier we needed to overcome to persuade skeptical customers that cannabinoids are useful active ingredients that can help provide some relief.

WB: What are your six and twelve-month objectives?

JS: Our six-month objective is to get federal policy and oversight for non-drug CBD products. Today, practically 20 million Americans consume CBD products daily, and not one of those items is made with oversight for food safety, quality control, or declares substantiation.

Our twelve-month objective is to get our CBD items onto mass-market retail shelves beyond natural grocers, which depends on federal regulation. Major sellers aren’t comfy purchasing an item that the FDA might decide to pluck whenever. We ‘d also like to see the marketplace emerge from today’s “anything goes” vibrant where people declare all sorts of crazy aspects of their items. CBD does not cure cancer, and when consumed will not take in into your blood stream any faster than water. CBD needs more science and less charlatanism, but that won’t change till there is policy.

On the Stillwater Brands side, we ‘d like to open a 2nd state this year – most likely Massachusetts, Illinois, or Michigan.

WB: What is your preferred food memory from your youth? Do you cook? Have you ever prepared a grandparent’s dish? If yes, what was it? JS: My grandmother worked at Hudson’s when I was growing up, and she used to shower me with the Frango mint chocolates she sold there. Our Ripple Relief QuickStick is mint chocolate seasoned, and every time I try it, I’m transported back to her couch.

I didn’t mature cooking. My mother is a great cook, however it never ever truly took for me. Given that my better half and I had our child and moved into a house, we have actually been finding out how to prepare. Fortunately, we work with a lot of excellent cooks who enjoy to share dishes and suggestions. I think in a year or two we’ll be all set to attempt my mom’s brisket, however for now we avoid the more complex dishes. That stated, my partner is an excellent baker. Thanks to her, shelter-in-place has actually been surprisingly tasty.

WB: What is your enthusiasm?

JS: Expertly, my enthusiasm is consistency. It’s what differentiates a logo from a brand. The story of cannabis today is the evolution from never ever understanding what you’re going to get to the expectation of having the very same experience every time. However consistency is hard. It’s much easier to claim a product corresponds than to produce an item that is consistent, particularly when you’re talking about plant-derived substances like CBD. As a business, we do not believe it’s plausible to declare universal results for cannabinoid products (e.g., sleep, awake, delighted) because everyone’s brain chemistry is distinct. How someone experiences a specific quantity of CBD or THC does not tell you anything about how somebody else would experience the exact same cocktail. If we can produce a consistent item on the front end, then consumers can get a consistent experience– whatever that may be to them– on the back end.