The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued a final call for ingestible CBD products to be added to the public list.
The register of consumable CBD products was revealed on 31 March and comprises 3,536 products. Only those on the list have a credible application for authorisation with the FSA and as a result are allowed to remain for sale.
Those not on the list are asked to voluntarily withdraw from the market, or risk enforcement action from Trading Standards.
In the weeks that followed the release of the database, a number of businesses are understood to have appealed their omissions, with some citing administrative errors as the cause.
FSA responded, saying the list would undergo minor edits, and has now given businesses until 26 May to submit evidence that their products are linked to a credible application. The requirement for applicants to prove that their products were on the market before 13 February 2020 stands.
Read more: Beyond the list – frequently asked questions
Announcing the final call, Rebecca Sudworth, Director of Policy, FSA said:
“This is an unexpected development as this product information should have been provided to us much earlier in the process. To support businesses to achieve compliance for their products, we are therefore making one final call for evidence from businesses to link their products to credible applications. Any businesses that have not already done so must send this evidence to us as soon as possible, but no later than 26 May for consideration.”
FSA issues final call for ingestible CBD products for public list
Cannabinoid Insight understands that FSA hopes to update the list before 30 June, and no further updates beyond this date are planned.
Sudworth added:
“After 30 June, no new products will be added. The only changes made after this will be to reflect changes to the status of products in our novel foods authorisation process.”
The Association for the Cannabinoid Industry maintains a successful novel foods consortium application, with all members achieving listed status. Commenting on the call to action, Steve Moore, ACI co-founder said:
“This was an inevitable development given the conjecture regarding the stabilisation of the 31 March release of the public list. An obviously disappointing development but we have been reassured by the FSA this evening that the central tenets of the policy relating to the list are unchanged.
“We remain committed to working with the FSA, Trading Standards and retailers to ensure the industry proceeds towards full compliance and product authorisation over the coming 12 months.”
Only CBD food products which were on the market before 13 February 2020, for which FSA received an authorisation application by 31 March 2021 are eligible to be added to the public CBD list.
