The Association for the Cannabinoid Industry has called on the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the Home Office to work together to expedite novel food applications for products containing cannabidiol (CBD).
 
The association has produced a new white paper underlying the need for constructive engagement between the two respective authorities. It stems from wide-ranging consultation with the UK’s consumer cannabinoid industry.
 
In 2022, the UK became the first country in the world to begin regulating the market for ingestible CBD products, with FSA releasing a list of CBD products permitted for sale to consumers. These products are the first to get approved in the interim ahead of FSA’s final authorization on CBD has been made, and, for now, are hanging in the balance of that final decision.
 
Then, in October 2023, FSA provided updated consumer guidance for CBD. That same month, the Home Office broadly accepted the position of the government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), which made several recommendations for a regulatory framework for CBD.
 
“Whilst the attempts by both the Home Office and Food Standards Agency to allow CBD products to continue on the market is commendable, the processes have taken too long, become too confused, and have not been sufficiently coordinated,” said Steve Moore, ACI co-founder. “The agency and the department should take account of the recommendations in this report. Together they provide a path to expedite the legal and regulation frameworks the industry has been crying out for and invested millions of pounds toward progress.”