The Food Standards Agency (FSA) will recommend a first set of three CBD product applications to ministers in spring/summer 2025, the agency said in its latest report. A recommendation will be made following an eight-week public consultation launching in early 2025.
"Three applications for CBD (>98% purity) isolated from Cannabis sativa have now received positive safety assessments – meaning that the FSA/ have concluded that the applicants have provided sufficient information to assure us they are safe under the proposed conditions of use," reads the paper. "These applications are now undergoing risk management, the purpose of which is to consider any other legitimate factors that may affect a decision to authorise, before making a recommendation to Ministers about authorisation, including any conditions that may be required such as labelling and consumer information. This paper seeks steers from the FSA Board to guide our overall approach."
Consideration at the ministry level sometimes takes months, which means that the country's first legal products could reach the shelves at the end of 2025, writes Hemp Today. The outlet further suggests that public consultation could raise concerns over several important matters such as allowable THC levels in CBD products and the daily intake limit for CBD.
Read Also: CBD Gains Novel Food Approval In The UK, Setting New Global Standard In The Industry
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THC Levels And Recommended Daily Intake Of CBD
The issue with the level of THC stems from the FSA's alignment with the Home Office's strict rule that says any amount of THC in a product classifies it as a controlled substance under the Misuse of Drugs Act. Nevertheless, products can get an exemption if the THC is at very low levels and can't be easily extracted in harmful amounts. To get the exemption, the CBD product in question must not be intended for delivering THC to humans or animals.
In Oct. 2023, the FSA significantly lowered the recommended daily intake of CBD from foods, after reviewing a joint position paper on the matter from the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Process and Committee on Toxicity (COT). Following the issued guidance, FSA now recommends a maximum of 10mg or "about 4-5 drops of 5% CBD oil" per day, down from 70mg recommended three years ago.
This compares to a recommended maximum daily intake of 17.5mg CBD proposed by the European Industrial Hemp Association to the European Food Safety Authority.
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