Companies selling food and drinks containing CBD in the UK have until March next year to submit authorisation applications or face having products pulled from sale.
The UK’s Food Standards Agency said any company that wants to use CBD in food and beverages must gain approval of the ingredient as a novel food. The deadline for submissions is 31 March 2021. Companies will be allowed to continue selling until then.
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The FSA warned after the deadline only products that have submitted a valid application will be allowed to remain on the market.
“CBD products are widely available on the high street but are not properly authorised,” said FSA chief executive Emily Miles. “The CBD industry must provide more information about the safety and contents of these products to the regulator before 31 March 2021, or the products will be taken off the shelves.”
The ruling also advised healthy people to “think carefully” before consuming CBD products, and not to exceed 70mg a day. Citing guidance from the UK Government’s Committee on Toxicity, the FSA also advised those who are pregnant, breastfeeding or taking any medication not to consume CBD, which in the UK is mainly derived from hemp.
“The actions that we’re taking today are a pragmatic and proportionate step in balancing the protection of public health with consumer choice,” Miles said.
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By GlobalDataIn January last year, The European Commission ruled products containing cannabinoids would be treated as novel foods, which applies to foods or ingredients that were not widely consumed before 1997.
Since then, countries like Germany and Belgium have put in place legislation aligning their national domestic laws with the EC’s ruling, which means products containing CBD must receive government authorisation before they can be legally sold.
Late last year, the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) had indicated it would follow suit and enforce the novel food ruling for CBD products.
The UK ruling falls short of a ruling from the US Food and Drug Administration last year that threw the country’s CBD industry into flux. In November, the FDA said it could not guarantee the safety of the cannabis-and-hemp-derived compound. A commentator at the time said the announcement effectively meant that in the US “just about everyone selling CBD in a food is breaking the law”.
just-food deep dive: What’s the outlook for CBD food in Europe?
