Regulators everywhere seem to be fairly useless at taking any aspect of the industry seriously.. the subject was on their agendas but not much attention paid.
Business of Cannabis
Last month, UK regulators held two key meetings on the future shape of novel foods regulation in the country, seeing many businesses hope that some much-needed clarity may be provided regarding the status of CBD.
CBD was featured prominently on the agendas of both the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) board meeting and the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods & Processes’ (ACNFP) two-day meeting, both of which took place over September 17 and 18.
Despite this, CBD was barely mentioned in the FSA’s meeting until questions were raised by the industry. More crucially, although the ACNFP’s agenda for Wednesday 18 was almost entirely dedicated to discussions around CBD, no one from the industry was invited to attend, and the discussions were kept private.
With the UK’s CBD industry having shrunk by 40% over the past five years, according to figures from the Cannabis Trades Association (CTA), frustration among operators at the lack of transparency continues to mount.
While industry groups have demanded greater involvement and insight into how the continually shifting goal posts are calculated, the FSA seemed to signal that it was willing to work more closely with the industry and recognised the urgent need for progress after numerous delays.
What happened?
The core issue that continues to loom over the UK’s CBD industry is consumer guidance from the FSA that the recommended ‘acceptable daily intake’ (ADI) for CBD products is just 10mg.
In October last year, long after the Novel Foods process was underway and CBD businesses had spent considerable funds to sumbit their applications, the FSA made the shock announcement that it was dropping its recommended daily intake from 70mg to 10mg.
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