Your Next Generation In Microbial Treatment
Ziel Makes Your Life Easier
Perks of Radio Frequency Microbial Control Treatment
Pass Microbial Testing
No Hidden Costs or Extra Waste
Maximize Profitability
No Permit and Label Hassle
14-Min Average Cycle Time
99.9% Machine Uptime
Protect Your Brand
Data Analytics and Integrations
Failing Microbial Testing Hurts Your Bottomline
Radio Frequency Decontamination Can Earn You More
Microbial testing is a regulatory requirement in every market, and passing is only getting tougher.
Cannabis mold and microbial contamination present one of the most significant financial threats to your post-harvest operation, as well as a health threat to consumers, putting your business and brand on the line with every batch of product you produce.
Failed flower not only tarnishes your brand, it leaves thousands of dollars on the table. Cannabis that can't be sold as flower and is instead sent off to extraction reduces your profit margins.
Incorporating a microbial control step into your SOPs ensures your product makes it to market, maximizing your revenue and profit. Click below to see how much revenue you can add back into your business with radio frequency mold decontamination.
See how much revenue you can add to your business with our calculator.
How Ziel Solves Your Problems
Ziel Simplifies All the Complex Moving Parts of Decontamination
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Customer Focused
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Service & Maintenance
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Throughput
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Energy Efficient
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Organic
Customer Focused
Ziel doesn’t just sell you a piece of equipment, we sell you a solution. Partnering with us means you have a whole team of experts backing you with domain experience in microbiology, data science, and cannabis operations.
Hands-On Approach
Our onboarding process ensures your Installation, Commissioning, and Training are complete in just 4 days so you can begin commercial operations within a week of your RFX's arrival. Your Customer Success representative will continue to monitor your processing for the first 6 months.
Easy-To-Operate Equipment
Our team meets with yours on-site to develop treatment formulas for your product’s microbial load profile. Once they’re dialed in, you can run them on your own with RFX’s easy-to-use HMI user interface.
Direct Engagement with Ziel
Our team manages your customer dashboard to monitor and measure your results. If any questions or issues arise, you have direct access to Ziel’s R&D, Operations, and Data Science experts. Talk to a real person who understand your success criteria.
Customer-specific dashboards are built to monitor and measure your results.
No Third-Party Maintenance Contractors
Only Ziel team members work on your RFX. Our remote diagnostics allow us 24-hour access to your unit(s) if your operators need help troubleshooting. We keep stores of critical spares within reach at our US-based service center.
Highest Throughput on the Market
Process up to 160 lb in your 8-hour shift. That’s up to 450 lb a day!
No Recovery Time
With a 99.9% uptime record, RFX is always at the ready. Never experience an interruption in post-harvest operations.
Built to Last
Our cannabis remediation units are built with the same durability we use to pasteurize nuts and seeds, designed with solid state electronics with no moving parts, engines, or conveyors.
Energy Efficiency
The RFX equipment is more than 70% energy efficient – most likely the most energy efficient piece of equipment at your facility.
Energy Use
Each cycle will require just 1 kWh of energy. That’s about $0.20.
An 8-hour shift will cost less than $10.00 in electricity.
Thermal & Non-Ionizing
Radio Frequency is recognized by the FDA as a compliant process for organic food certification (and one day soon for cannabis!).
The use of ionizing technology on Cannabis will disqualify you under existing FDA guidelines.
Attractive to Consumers
Consumers demand to know how their products are grown and treated. Using Radio Frequency as your cannabis kill step protects your brand because it only uses heat—no chemicals—to decontaminate your cannabis.
Ziel’s Hands-On Approach
Onboarding
Installation & Commissioning
Ongoing Engagement
Radio Frequency vs. Other Cannabis Decontamination Technologies
| Technology | Radio Frequency | X-Ray | Ozone | Reactive Oxygen | Gamma / E-Beam | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operations | Throughput / 24 hr | 480 lb | 90 lb | 50 lb | 240 lb | N/A |
| Facility Upgrade | $0 | $20,000 | $0 | $0 | N/A | |
| Warranty (after year 1) | $24,000 | $35,000 | N/A | Unknown | N/A | |
| Finance | Unit Cost | $340,000 | $360,000 | $300,000 | $140,000 | Toll Model |
| Consumables | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | N/A | |
| Processing $ / lb * | $2.88 | $10.43 | $4.22 | $26.52 | $27.00 | |
| Quality | Efficacy | >99% | >99% | >95% | >95% | >99% |
| Product Labeling | Thermal | Ionizing Radiation | Gas | Chemical | Ionizing Radiation | |
| Organic |
*5 Year Levelized Cost of Processing
Fully Loaded Capital and Operating Costs
Throughput in 8-Hour Shift, 365 Days Per Annum
Success with Radio Frequency Mold Remediation
How Ziel Recovered $1 Million in Lost Revenue for a Michigan Cultivator
The Problem
Ziel’s customer was sitting on 1,600 lb of flower from a 2021 outdoor harvest that was treated with Ozone and failed regulatory testing due to a high level of heat-tolerant coliforms & BTGN microbial pathogens.
Ziel’s Solution
Ziel designed unique process settings and programmed the client’s APEX machine to address the customer’s specific product profile—outdoor grown, contaminated with coliforms & BTGN microbes, and slightly dry from sitting for nearly a year.
The Result
- Processed nearly 50% of the inventory in the first month
- Passed Michigan microbial regulatory testing 100%
- Sold 100% of inventory just two months after implementing APEX remediation
- Maintained premium pricing by retaining product potency and quality
- Recovered $1.0M in lost revenue in 2 months from installation to product sales
Average Results Working with Ziel
Recovered revenue using Ziel's APEX 7 cannabis decontamination machine
Compliance pass rate for microbial testing
Flower processed daily
Cannabis Decontamination Machine: Apex 7 Market Data
Countries using Ziel’s Radio Frequency mold remediation tech
Cannabis strains processed (and counting!)
Machine uptime
Frequently Asked Questions
What Does Mold On Weed Look Like? How To Fix Moldy Bud?
Looks can be deceiving. Mold is naked to the human eye and can only be detected by laboratory testing. Cannabis flower with a high mold count or microbial load can look the same as flower with a low mold count. Without a proper cannabis kill step, flower with a microbial load will continue to grow and eventually visible mold will appear.
Remediation processing can kill the mold, but it cannot remove any visual mold from the bud. The best practice is to decontaminate the cannabis before mold becomes visible.
What Are Microbes?
Microbes are tiny organisms found in the environment. Some of them can cause illness while others are harmless. The most common types of microbes are bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
What Does Water Activity Level Do To Cannabis?
Mold and other microbes thrive in a moist environment. The water activity level determines whether there is sufficient water activity present for microbial growth. A water activity level below 0.65, often measured on a CoA, will prevent mold growth or regeneration.
How Do You Pass Microbial Testing?
You pass cannabis microbial testing two ways.
First, employ best practices and rigorously follow Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to minimize microbial pathogens. But remember—mold is always present at some level in every facility. Following SOPs, you may pass as low as 50% or up to 99%, and your success may fluctuate widely depending on seasonality, cross-contamination, drying, handling, or other factors.
Second, incorporate a remediation strategy as part of your SOPs. Cannabis remediation is a kill step that occurs prior to lab testing and packaging.
What Is Powdery Mildew On Weed?
Powdery mildew is caused by a group of fungi. When cannabis flower is covered with a light gray or white powdery spot, it’s safe to assume this is powdery mildew.
What Does Remediated Mean?
Remediated cannabis flower means the flower has been treated to reduce yeast, mold, or other microbes.
Why Is Radio Frequency The Best Option For Clean Cannabis?
Radio Frequency is a safe, organic, and fast method of treatment that does not affect the quality of the flower or degrade its potency.
Radio Frequency is also recognized as compliant with organic processes.
What Makes Non-Ionizing Technology Better for Cannabis Decontamination?
The use of ionizing technology, like X-Ray, for cannabis decontamination disqualifies you from organic claims. Radio Frequency is recognized by the FDA as a compliant process for organic food certification (and hopefully one day soon for cannabis too).
Get in Touch with Us
Learn More
Check out our Resources page and download additional information on the remediation solution you're interested in.
Contact Us Today
Take the first step to boosting your profit margins. Start the conversation now.
Meet the APEX 7
Learn more about how cannabis remediation with the APEX 7 can help your specific operation.