Serving size

Serving size is the amount of a product that the manufacturer designates as a single use on the label, along with the cannabinoid content that amount contains.

The concept comes from food and supplement labeling, where a supplement facts panel lists the serving size, servings per container, and the amount of each ingredient per serving. For a liquid, the serving is usually a fraction of a dropper or a number of drops; for gummies or capsules, it is a count of pieces. The manufacturer chooses the serving size, and it is not established through clinical testing or reviewed by a regulator before sale.

A labeled serving of a CBD product is therefore not the same thing as a dose studied in research, and the amounts differ widely, with clinical trial doses usually many times larger than a retail serving. Servings on different products are not comparable unless the milligrams per serving are read. The certificate of analysis allows the per-serving figure to be checked against laboratory results. Readers meet this term on every supplement facts panel; it describes a labeling convention, not a recommendation.