Three words, none of them legally defined
None of the three terms has a legal definition anywhere in the Union. They are commercial vocabulary, applied by sellers according to their own understanding, with no threshold, no verification and no consequence for using them loosely.
They are also genuinely useful, because they point at a real distinction: how much of the plant’s compound profile survived into the finished product. The problem is that the words carry no guarantee that the distinction was respected.
This page covers what each term usually means, what the boundaries are, what the certificate shows instead, and how to check whether a product is what its label calls it.
⚠️ Scope. This page describes a process and what can be verified from documents. It does not describe what a product does to a person, gives no amounts, and does not replace a healthcare professional.
🔴 What the terms usually mean
Full spectrum
An extract retaining the range of compounds present in the plant, including the minor cannabinoids, the terpenes, and a trace of THC within the legal limit.
Broad spectrum
The same, with the THC removed by an additional processing step, and generally with some collateral loss of other compounds.
Isolate
A single purified compound, with everything else removed. Typically a crystalline powder of high stated purity.
What they have in common
None is defined in law, none has a threshold, and none is verified by anyone before it appears on a label.
Where the boundaries are unclear
Between full and broad
How much THC removal is required, and whether trace amounts disqualify a product from the first category. No answer exists.
Between broad and isolate
How many minor compounds must survive for a product to count as broad rather than an isolate with additions. Also undefined.
The re-addition question
A product built from isolate with terpenes added back may be described as full spectrum by some sellers. Nothing prohibits it.
What that produces
Two products carrying the same term that differ substantially, and no way to tell from the term alone.
🔴 What the certificate shows instead
The cannabinoid panel
Each compound quantified separately. A genuine full spectrum extract shows measurable figures in several rows; an isolate shows one.
The terpene profile
Where commissioned, it shows the aromatic composition directly. It is the panel that would distinguish a retained profile from an added one, and it is rarely present.
The THC row
Whether it is present at a trace level or reported as below the detection limit. This is the clearest technical difference between the first two categories.
What to look for
Several populated rows for full spectrum, THC absent for broad, and a single high figure for isolate. It takes seconds.
The THC removal step
Why it is done
To produce a product with no detectable THC, for buyers who want that for their own reasons.
How it is done
Chromatographic separation, most commonly, which removes the THC fraction selectively.
What it costs
Some of the other compounds, because no separation is perfectly selective. A broad spectrum product is generally poorer in minor cannabinoids than the full spectrum extract it came from.
What it does not remove
Anything else on the certificate. Contaminants are unaffected and the panels are still needed.
Zero THC and what it means
The claim
That a product contains no THC at all, frequently phrased as a guarantee.
What is actually measurable
Absence below a detection limit. No analysis establishes that nothing is present; it establishes that nothing was found above a stated threshold.
Why the wording matters
Below the detection limit is a measurable statement. Zero is not, and a certificate cannot support it.
What to look for
The detection limit stated on the report. Without it, an absence claim cannot be evaluated at all.
The entourage argument
What it proposes
That the compounds present in a whole-plant extract interact, and that the combination behaves differently from an isolated compound.
Its status
A hypothesis with some supporting laboratory work and no authorised claim behind it. It is discussed seriously in the literature and it is not settled.
Why we do not build on it
Because it concerns effects, and effects are outside what we may address. It is also the commonest justification offered for a price premium.
What can be said
That full spectrum products contain more compounds. That is compositional and it is on the certificate.
Re-aromatisation
What it is
Adding terpenes back to a product after processing removed them, whether from the same material or from another source.
Why it is done
Because distillation and thorough refinement remove the aromatic profile entirely, and buyers expect one.
Whether it is legitimate
Entirely, when disclosed. Terpenes are ordinary ingredients and they belong on the ingredient list.
What to check
The ingredient list. A product describing itself as full spectrum while listing added terpenes is telling you something about how the term is being used.
Reading a product page
The term
Read it as a rough category rather than a specification. It narrows the field and settles nothing.
The certificate
Read it for the number of populated rows, the THC row, and whether a terpene profile exists.
The ingredient list
Read it for added terpenes and for the carrier. Both are informative about what the product actually is.
The price
Compare per milligram of the principal compound, across categories. The premium for a spectrum term is frequently large.
What each category costs to make
Isolate
The most processed and, per unit of the compound, generally the cheapest. Purification is efficient and the material is a commodity.
Full spectrum
Less processing, lower yield per unit of input, and a product whose value depends on retaining what processing would remove.
Broad spectrum
Full spectrum plus an additional separation step. It is the most processed of the two whole-plant categories.
What that implies for pricing
Isolate should be cheapest per milligram and frequently is not, because the category carries a positioning premium that has nothing to do with production cost.
Why nobody defines the terms
No regulator has needed to
The terms are not used in legislation, so no definition was required. Definitions arrive when a rule depends on them.
No industry body has succeeded
Voluntary standards have been proposed in several markets and none has achieved general adoption. A definition only works if everyone uses it.
The commercial incentive
Vague terms are more useful to a seller than precise ones. There is no constituency for narrowing them.
What would change it
A regulatory framework that used the terms, or a certification scheme buyers demanded. Neither currently exists.
What a careful seller does
States the composition
Publishes a full cannabinoid panel rather than relying on a category term.
Publishes a terpene profile
Where the claim concerns retained aroma, this is the analysis that would support it.
Discloses additions
Lists added terpenes in the ingredient list, in position, rather than folding them into a spectrum claim.
Uses the term consistently
Applies it the same way across a range, so that at least within one catalogue the word means something.
The one comparison worth making
Within a seller’s range
Their full spectrum against their isolate, on the certificates. It reveals how they use the terms.
What you learn
Whether their full spectrum genuinely has several populated rows, and whether their isolate is as pure as claimed.
Across sellers
Only via the certificates. The terms do not compare and the numbers do.
The habit
Category term to shortlist, certificate to choose. It is the same division that applies to every name in this subject.
The compliance dimension of trace THC
Why a full spectrum product carries some
Because the plant produces it, and an extraction that retains everything retains that too. It is a consequence of the category rather than a defect.
The limit that applies
Total THC, calculated as delta-9-THC plus THCA multiplied by 0.877, must stay within the applicable threshold for the finished product.
Where the concentration factor bites
An extract concentrates everything from the input. Compliant plant material extracted several-fold can produce an extract that is not compliant.
What that requires
Testing the finished product rather than relying on the input analysis. It is the producer’s obligation and the row a buyer should check.
Why someone would want THC removed
The reasons people give
Workplace testing, personal preference, and regulatory requirements in a destination country. All are legitimate and none is our business.
What broad spectrum offers
A product with THC below the detection limit, documented on a certificate.
What it cannot offer
A guarantee of a particular outcome in any test. That depends on the test, the threshold and the individual, none of which a seller knows.
The honest framing
The certificate documents what is in the product. What follows from that is outside what a seller can address.
What the panel actually looks like
On an isolate
One row with a high figure, generally stated as a purity percentage, and every other row reported below the detection limit.
On a broad spectrum extract
Several populated rows, the THC row below the limit of detection, and a total that is lower than a comparable full spectrum extract.
On a full spectrum extract
Several populated rows including a small but measurable THC figure, and generally the widest range of minor compounds.
What takes the longest to read
Nothing. It is a table, and the pattern is visible at a glance once you know what the three patterns look like.
The synthesis question
Why it belongs here
Because compounds identical to plant-derived ones can be produced by synthesis or by conversion from other cannabinoids, and the resulting product is chemically the same.
What differs
The regulatory position, which handles novel production routes differently, and the impurity profile, which reflects the process rather than the plant.
What a certificate would show
The principal compound, and any process-specific impurities where they were looked for. Most panels do not look.
Why it matters to these three terms
Because an isolate’s origin is invisible in a purity figure. Asking how it was produced is a reasonable question and the answer is not on the label.
The check that takes ten seconds
Open the certificate
Look at the cannabinoid table and count how many rows carry a figure rather than a below-detection note. That count is what the category term was gesturing at.
Then look at the THC row
Present at a trace, or below detection. That single row separates the first two categories more cleanly than any wording on a label.
Then look at the ingredient list
For added terpenes. A full spectrum claim alongside added aromatics tells you how the seller is using the word.
Why the vocabulary survives without definitions
It is genuinely useful
The distinction it points at is real, and buyers need some way to talk about it. A vague word that gestures at something true beats no word at all.
And genuinely unenforceable
Without a definition there is nothing to breach. A seller applying the term loosely is not violating anything, which is why the practice persists unchallenged.
What fills the gap
The certificate, which measures what the word describes. It is the definition the vocabulary never received, expressed in rows rather than in language.
A short glossary
Full spectrum
Commonly, an extract retaining the plant’s compound range including trace THC. Undefined in law.
Broad spectrum
Commonly, the same with THC removed by an additional step. Also undefined, with unclear boundaries at both edges.
Isolate
A single purified compound with everything else removed, typically crystalline and of high stated purity.
Detection limit
The threshold below which an analysis cannot distinguish a substance from nothing. It is what an absence claim actually rests on.
Re-aromatisation
Adding terpenes back after processing removed them, which is legitimate when disclosed on the ingredient list.
The five checks that apply to any product
The batch certificate
Request it with the number printed on the packaging. A general document for the product line does not cover this batch, and those differences are exactly what it should record.
Total THC
Delta-9-THC plus THCA multiplied by 0.877, because THCA becomes THC under heat and the limit applies to the sum, not to either value alone.
Price per milligram
A division, not an opinion. The only figure that makes two products comparable, whatever the format, process and pack size.
The claims
Without an authorisation number in the EU Register these are assertions, not data — and for cannabidiol that register contains no authorised entry to this day.
The seller’s details
Company name, address and contact. Without them there is also no counterparty to turn to if something turns out to be wrong.
How this connects to the rest
With the certificate
The panel is what distinguishes the categories. The terms only point at the distinction.
With extraction routes
The refinement applied determines which category a product falls into, more than the extraction method does.
With price per milligram
The comparison that reveals whether a spectrum premium reflects production cost or positioning.
With terpene profiles
The panel that would substantiate a retained-profile claim, and the one least often commissioned.
What this is for in practice
When you see the term
Read it as a category, not a specification. Two products carrying it can differ substantially.
When THC-free is claimed
Look for the detection limit. Absence below a threshold is measurable; zero is not.
When full spectrum is claimed
Check the certificate for several populated rows, and the ingredient list for added terpenes.
When comparing
Per milligram of the principal compound, with the panels in front of you.
Frequently asked questions
Are these terms legally defined? No. None of the three has a definition in Union law, a threshold, or any verification before use.
What does full spectrum usually mean? An extract retaining the plant’s range of compounds, including minor cannabinoids, terpenes and trace THC within the limit.
What does broad spectrum mean? Usually the same with THC removed by an additional separation step, generally with some loss of other compounds.
What is an isolate? A single purified compound with everything else removed, typically a crystalline powder of high stated purity.
How do I check which one I have? The cannabinoid panel. Several populated rows for full spectrum, THC absent for broad, one high figure for isolate.
Can a product be built from isolate and called full spectrum? Nothing prohibits it. The ingredient list showing added terpenes is what reveals it.
What does zero THC mean? Absence below a detection limit. No analysis can establish that nothing is present, and the limit should be stated.
Is the entourage argument settled? No. It is a hypothesis discussed seriously in the literature, with no authorised claim behind it.
Which is cheapest to produce? Isolate, generally, per unit of the compound. It is frequently not the cheapest to buy.
How should I compare across sellers? By certificate and by price per milligram. The category terms do not compare between catalogues.
What we check and what we do not
We check what can be checked from documents: official registers, declared contents, certificates of analysis, arithmetic. We test no products, rank nothing, and assert no effects.
These three words are doing more commercial work than almost any others in the category, and they rest on nothing. No definition, no threshold, no check before a label is printed. A seller can apply them however they choose and no one will contradict them.
What the words point at is real and it is measurable: how many compounds survived into the product. That is on the certificate, in rows, in milligrams. The panel takes seconds to read and it answers the question the label only gestures at.