A 501c3 commissioned accredited private labs to test whole hemp biomass. The results are preliminary. They also answer a question that USDA’s food-data infrastructure has spent seven years not asking.
Hemp has been federal food in the United States since 2018.
Seven years later, USDA’s main nutritional database still has no entry for the whole plant. Seeds, yes. Plant, no.
A 501c3 called Food First Initiative just spent $9,379.20 in donor money paying private labs to do the work.
Key Takeaways
USDA’s FoodData Central has had a hulled hemp seed entry since 2018, flagged as not to be updated. It has never published nutritional data on whole hemp biomass.
A 501c3 called Food First Initiative paid AGQ USA and Eurofins to test fresh and dried biomass with and without seeds.
The samples came from a federally compliant grain-type cultivar grown in Flint, Michigan, tested at 1.27% total CBD and no detectable THC.
The data is preliminary: single farm, single cultivar, single growing season, no peer review.
What The Labs Found
The labs came back with numbers.
Per 100 grams of dried seedless hemp biomass: 5,990 mg of calcium. 2,336 mg of potassium. 8.67 grams of protein. 34.6 grams of dietary fiber.
With seeds in the mix: 12.1 grams of protein. 35.6 grams of fiber. 321 calories per 100 grams.
Eurofins detected seven essential amino acids across all four sample conditions. Glutamic acid led the dried-with-seeds profile at 1.46 percent, followed by aspartic acid (1.17%), arginine (0.84%), leucine (0.69%) and valine (0.55%).
Per 100g dried hemp biomass
12.1g
Protein, dried biomass with seeds
35.6g
Dietary fiber, dried biomass with seeds
5,990mg
Calcium, dried seedless biomass
2,336mg
Potassium, dried seedless biomass
Sources: AGQ USA (calcium, potassium, protein, fiber) and Eurofins Nutrition Analysis Center, commissioned by Food First Initiative. Methods: ICP-OES for minerals, elemental analyser for protein, AOAC 982.30 mod for amino acids.
The samples came from a grain-type …
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Author: Javier Hasse / High Times
