CBD products linked to novel food applications

The list of CBD food products on sale in England and Wales are linked to applications for authorisation going through the novel foods process. We are advising that products not on the list should be removed from sale.

Novel foods, like CBD food products, must be authorised before they are put on the market to ensure they have been through an independent safety assessment. Applications for authorisation of CBD food products are required as these products are considered a novel food having no history of consumption before May 1997.

You can find more information about the authorisation process on the Placing a regulated product on the market page.

To bring the current market into compliance, exceptionally we asked the industry to submit applications for CBD products which were on sale on 13 February 2020.

The list of CBD products linked to novel food applications contains CBD food products which meet the following criteria:

• they were on the market at the time of our announcement on CBD (13 February 2020)
• we received an authorisation application for the products before 31 March 2021
• we validated the application or agreed that it is sufficiently progressing towards validation

All CBD products must comply with other legislative requirements and should not be:

• incorrectly labelled
• unsafe
• regarded as controlled substances

List of CBD products

The list contains CBD food products which are linked to an application for authorisation going through the novel foods process.

While the decision on enforcement on non-compliant novel foods remains with enforcement authorities, we have recommended to local authorities that any products which do not appear on the list or are marked as ‘Removed’ should be withdrawn from the market.

Information included in this list has been provided by applicants and associated companies linked to applications. While we have verified the supplied evidence that these products were on sale before 13 February 2020, the FSA cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions from this list.

Inclusion of a CBD product in this list does not mean it is authorised, only that the applicant is seeking authorisation. 

Product status

Validated

Validation requires checking that an application contains all information required to allow it to proceed through the risk assessment process and onto authorisation. This information includes necessary evidence to carry out a risk assessment. If any of this information is missing, the application cannot be validated.

It is important to note that validation is not the same as authorisation. There is no guarantee that a validated application will be authorised.

Awaiting evidence

Some applications that have not been validated are progressing well towards providing this information, with evidence of plans to complete the studies required for a risk assessment. These studies must be of an acceptable quality and with a clear agreed deadline for submission for validation. Products linked to these applications are included in the ‘awaiting evidence’ category.

These applications and associated products will be removed from the list and the process if the required evidence is not provided by the agreed time and to a suitable quality to be validated. This means that those products should be removed from the market.

Removed

If a novel food application has not made sufficient progress towards validation in the agreed time or has not made it to the next stage of the authorisation process, we will update the status of the CBD products linked to this application to ‘removed’. The products associated with these applications should be removed from the market and could be subject to local enforcement.

Our approach to CBD food products

The FSA is not endorsing the sale of any CBD food products, regardless of whether on the list or not.

Safety of CBD products

We have issued consumer advice on the consumption of CBD for healthy adults and vulnerable groups.

Sellers of CBD should be aware of this information and be able to inform consumers on the recommended maximum daily limit for healthy adults. As a precaution, we do not recommend CBD for people in vulnerable groups, unless under medical direction. This includes children (those under the age of 18), people taking any medication, those trying to conceive and those who are pregnant or breast feeding.

Enforcement

Local authorities are responsible for enforcing the legislation but we have advised that they take account of the products on the list when determining their enforcement priorities, as these suppliers are moving towards compliance. We expect companies which have not applied for authorisation or those rejected from the process to withdraw their products from the market voluntarily. If this does not happen, local authorities can use the list to inform their enforcement decisions.

CBD food products are subject to food laws. If there are any safety concerns related to CBD products, local authorities can take appropriate enforcement action.

Contact us

If you have any questions about the list of CBD products, contact us at novelfoods@food.gov.uk.

Any queries on the authorisation process should be directed to regulatedproducts@food.gov.uk or regulated.products.wales@food.gov.uk.