There has been a lot of enquiries from businesses asking for clarification about the legalities of CBD.
A majority of the questioning comes from the UK where bodies like the home office have previously had a lack of understanding themselves and therefore made the area quite muddy. I have always insisted that this is an EU stance and whilst the UK is still in partnership with the EU then as far as we are concerned, the rules are clear.
Hemp that has been around for centuries and is already fully certified is totally legal and accepted and has never been regulated. These ‘strains’ of hemp are all listed in public and can be obtained from certified suppliers. NOT using these certified seeds or then manipulating the plant is when it becomes probably illegal and at the very least ‘novel’.
Recently the UK officialdom has had to make this message clearer and this is fundamentally the statement.
“Essentially hemp and products like hemp oil that may or may not contain naturally occurring low levels of CBD have a history of consumption (HOC) in the EU (foods and supplements) and so are permitted on the EU market in food and supplements.
“Hemp oil that has not been processed to increase the level of CBD is one of those derived products permitted. However, where there has been any process used to increase the level of CBD relative to the naturally occurring content, such products would require an authorisation as a novel food for use in any food or supplements. Of course, pure CBD in isolated form, natural or synthetic would also require novel food authorisation.”
This statement totally aligns with our stance and is how all our farms at Granjacia work. All seeds are from these certified channels and are not manipulated in any way. They always comply with all legal requirements.
The waters were muddied even further when because of this lack of clarity amongst governments, CBD was then prevented from being classed as a ‘food’ during 2018 until further notice. Food would include supplements. Also, clarify that it cannot be classed as medicine either.
Granjacia is one of the few companies in the world to have a genuine government issued license to distribute CBD products throughout Europe. In the main, due to our beliefs, we have tried to keep ourselves classed as organic farmers and the product we sell is simply a legal hemp extract. That is how we register it and that is how it is sold to our clients from all over the world. For some of our clients, it is easy to then register the product as a food in some countries, whilst in others, such as the EU we can still register products for legal resale so long as we do it in a certain way, with full CNPC cosmetic licenses.
If we decide to register ourselves and become accepted as full GMP company then you can then actually register products for medical use. Of course, that is where it is difficult for smaller businesses sometimes because the costs continue to mount for registrations, consultants, clean rooms and laboratories. But it can be done, don’t let others tell you differently, we are doing it ourselves.
