In a long-awaited and major step forward for the UK’s CBD sector, the regulator has announced a new roadmap that could see the first products given official approval by Spring next year.
While this announcement comes nearly seven years after the novel foods process first started in 2018, the official authorisation of Cannabidiol (CBD) products would set a precedent not yet seen by the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) international counterparts like EFSA in Europe or the FDA in the USA.
With three applications now having received positive safety assessments, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) are set to launch an eight-week public consultation period early next year, before making a final call to ministers.
This consultation period offers a rare and long-called-for opportunity to stakeholders to be heard, and could serve as an olive branch for the FSA and business owners to rebuild a fractured relationship.
What happened?
Last week, the FSA’s Thomas Vincent and CBD Policy Team published a new report on the current status of the novel foods application process.
In it was a prospective timeline for three applications to reach the final stage of the process, whereby the FSA will make recommendations to government ministers who are required to give the green light before the authorisation comes into force.
