The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has created a list of more than 3,500 food products infused with cannabidiol (CBD), bringing them one step closer to being authorised as part of government plans to wrest control over a flourishing industry.
CBD extracts are widely available in UK shops, cafes and online in the form of oils, drops, gels, confectionery, bakery products and drinks. The FSA is responsible for food safety and hygiene in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The move comes as a warning to businesses as interest in CBD-infused products has accelerated in recent years, infiltrating the world of medicine and hailed by many as the latest health trend.
“Today we have taken the next step in our pragmatic approach to making sure CBD products are safe and what they say they are,” said Emily Miles, the FSA chief executive. “If a product is not on the list, it should be removed from sale because it is not attached to a credible application to us for market authorisation.”
The list was first published in April 2021, and has been periodically updated – this time with hopes that authorities, retailers and consumers can make informed decisions.
But validation is only the first step. CBD products on the list must undergo further stages of assessment before being authorised, the FSA said, which is unlikely to happen before 2023.
In the first safety advice to consumers in 2020, the regulator warned against pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and people on medication eating food containing CBD, and cautioned against the consumption of more than 70mg a day for healthy adults.
The announcement was also an attempt to tighten a market rife with unauthorised products and reassure the public, the regulator said, while citing concerns over a dearth of studies on CBD when consumed as food.
“In the absence of evidence we think we’re trying to be proportionate,” said Miles.
According to a report from the World Health Organization (WHO), CBD does not exhibit effects of abuse or dependency and is generally well tolerated. “To date, there is no evidence of recreational use of CBD or any public health related problems associated with the use of pure CBD,” the 2017 report said.
Classed as a “novel” food, or food that has not been consumed by people in Britain or the EU before May 1997, CBD products must be approved before going to market. The novel food status of CBD products was first confirmed in January 2019. Businesses were granted nearly a year to apply for market approval, by March 2021, or otherwise be taken off the market.
More than 700 applications for cannabis-derived products for market authorisation had been rejected in the past year, the regulator said.
“Five years after interest started to explode in this product, we still have no idea whether CBD products are actually beneficial, just the FSA authorisation means they are safe to take,” said Harry Sumnall, a professor of substance use at Liverpool John Moores University.
“To be fair, CBD’s a relatively safe drug anyway,” he said, adding that, as part of a wellness industry where branding is key, “it’s a shame perhaps we’ve missed an opportunity with CBD to actually look at some of the effectiveness around this product”.
Industry experts such as the Association for the Cannabinoid Industry, a consortium of businesses, estimated the UK’s consumer cannabidiol sector in 2021 to be worth £690m, making it the second largest after the US.
In 2018, the government approved the prescription of cannabis medicine following a series of high-profile cases of children denied access to cannabis oil to treat epilepsy.
