Hello. In this food law video we are going to be talking about CBD or Cannabidiol, one of the extracts from cannabis and its application in the food industry and gosh, it is being used widely isn’t it, all over the world in everything from juices to coffees to beers to chocolate, everywhere. CBD seems to be popping up as a very popular ingredient. Maybe we should just start with a little bit more about our understanding of what CBD actually is Katrina – Yes, now CBD is something which is derived from cannabis but it is not the same as cannabis. It typically has a very low level of what is known as THC which is the active ingredient in cannabis and there are legal requirements about that so it is not a drug if you like in the normal sense but it is being put into foods in various descriptions are also being sold as food supplements. – Okay so part of the reason why CBD has become a little bit controversial, aside from obviously the plant that it is extracted from, is the whole concept of it potentially being a novel food. – Yes exactly and we have seen some recent changes at an EU level so the EU has come out and actually said that with the exception of a very narrowly defined CBD, actually CBD is in general a novel food and the implication of that is that it requires novel foods approval which is not currently in place and therefore it means that in effect other than this narrowly defined CBD it cannot currently be used in food in the EU. – So if we just go and break that down a little bit further, what we know is that there has been an amendment to the EU novel food catalogue which of course does not have legal status but does indicate that certain types of CBD could be classed as novel food. – Yes, so what the amendment suggests is that everything apart from extractions and it must not be a synthetic extraction from this one particular strain which is called cannabis sativa that has a THC level of less than not 0.2% is a novel food, so unless you fit into that very tight definition, then a novel food approval is required. – Yes so a novel food application would be required and we know that actually there is a novel food application currently going through, it is sitting with EFSA the European Food Safety Authority who are making a determination as to the safety of CBD and it is quite interesting that we anticipated that we would be getting the opinion at the end of March and certainly to date, nothing has come out. – Yes I mean, I can imagine that given the political sensitivity of this and the general interest in some quite diverging views that EFSA are looking at this one quite carefully because although it will not make all CBD approved if it goes through, it will set something of the precedent as to how EFSA will deal with these things. – Of course that does create a problem because we have currently got all of these products out there with the CBD in it and you know in the UK the Food Standards Agency has come out and made a comment that they will try acknowledging that CBD extract is a novel food and saying that they will try to deal with compliance in a proportionate manner, so they will find a proportionate way forward. But practically, how they are going to achieve that remains to be seen and we know there are a number of lobby groups that have been in touch with the FSA and are writing pretty strongly worded letters in terms of action that could be taken for products that are out there in the market currently that contain CBD and are now being ‘misclassified’ as they would see it as a novel food. – Yes exactly, it is definitely one we are going to have to watch to see how the FSA deals with it, see how the lobbying groups react and also just the industry in the market, how they respond to all of this. – I think it is interesting as well that similar discussions are happening, obviously in other member states but also across the pond in America where I think it was only the end of May that the FDA held an open hearing with all sides of the debate coming forward and putting forward views in relation to the safety and the regulation of CBD and you know that there really is no kind of conclusion from that other than the fact that this is an area that desperately needs some clear guidance and some rules put in place. – Yes and I think in a way, the fact that you are having the EU issues mirrored in the US is an indication of the fact that we do not currently have a received accepted wisdom on the safety of this product which is effectively part of the issue. – Which also it means the FSA’s opinion will be more important. Absolutely and going forward it is going to be very interesting to see how these products develop because there are products that clearly do not require a novel foods application so can continue to be sold but it is quite challenging with those kinds of products what can actually be said about them because obviously, like all foods you cannot make medical claims about the properties of CBD. There are also currently no approved health claims so communicating to the public who you know are not necessarily that familiar with CBD as to what that product is for, is quite a minefield from a labelling perspective and an advertising one as well. – Yes I can see that, you are down to trying to make factual statements or maybe trying to slot it under our old favorite that we have talked about previously, the kind of overarching claim of natural you know, could you try and imply that there are some benefits from it in that way. As you say, something we need to watch and certainly we will keep you updated as things develop in this video series, thanks very much.
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