A gaggle of hemp business stakeholders has formally requested the UK’s Meals Requirements Company (FSA) to make clear whether or not whole-plant hemp extracts ought to be handled as novel meals, arguing that they’ve a protracted historical past of protected use and will fall beneath normal meals legislation. The request challenges the regulator’s long-standing place and requires a realignment with historic proof.

The request, created by advisor The Hemp Hound Company, was undersigned by a bunch of stakeholders. Referred to as an Article 4 submitting, it requested the FSA to acknowledge that full-spectrum and broad-spectrum extracts produced via conventional strategies corresponding to chilly urgent, tincturing, and ethanol extraction had a well-documented historical past of use earlier than the Might 1997 deadline that defines novel meals.

Underneath UK and European meals legislation, firms can ask regulators to resolve whether or not a product ought to be handled as a “novel meals” via an Article 4 submitting. Such requests are basically clarification circumstances: if a product is deemed non-novel, it may be offered beneath regular meals guidelines; whether it is dominated novel, it should bear a prolonged and expensive authorization course of earlier than it may be positioned available on the market.

Historic use cited

The submitting pointed to European Fee and UK information displaying hemp flowers have been utilized in teas, brewing, and flavorings, and that hemp extract drinks have been lawfully traded in 1997. Meals not consumed in Europe previous to 1997 are thought of new or “novel” meals, and should achieve approval from the European Meals Security Authority to be offered. Within the UK, the Meals Requirements Company (FSA) nonetheless makes use of this mechanism after Brexit, because the guidelines have been carried over into home legislation.

“CBD didn’t immediately seem within the final 10 years. It has at all times been a pure constituent of hemp meals,” the submission mentioned.

It argued that CBD-rich hemp oils made with conventional processes usually are not new meals however established ones. “Hemp oil which incorporates CBD and is produced by chilly urgent has a historical past of consumption,” the authors wrote, including that proof from meals, drinks, and natural preparations all supported this conclusion.

Entire-plant vs isolates

The submission drew a distinction between whole-plant derivatives and purified cannabinoid isolates. Whereas isolates and artificial CBD might correctly fall beneath novel meals and drug-law frameworks, the authors mentioned whole-plant merchandise with lower than 0.2% THC ought to stay beneath normal meals legislation.

“Selective extracts like isolates are a distinct class altogether,” the paper famous. “Unselective extracts corresponding to cold-press oils or tinctures protect the pure steadiness of the plant and fall inside conventional meals processes.”

Critique of THC limits

The Article 4 doc additionally challenged the FSA’s present 50-microgram-per-serving cap on THC in meals, calling it arbitrary and unsupported by meals legislation. “This restrict has no foundation in science or proportionality,” the submission argued. As a substitute, it pointed to a 2025 advisory committee discovering that 1 microgram per kilogram of physique weight per day was a proportionate threshold.

The authors urged regulators to align UK coverage with jurisdictions corresponding to Switzerland, Canada, and america, the place whole-plant hemp oils usually are not handled as novel meals.

Name for readability

The submission requested the FSA to:

• Formally acknowledge whole-plant hemp oils as non-novel meals.
• Withdraw the present THC per-serving restrict.
• Publish clear definitions separating seed oils, whole-plant extracts, and isolates.
• Set up clear session with business.

“Hemp’s meals historical past is simple, but companies are being handled as if they’re dealing with managed medication,” the authors mentioned. “That is neither lawful nor truthful.”

A broader critique

In parallel, a brand new white paper from The Hemp Hound founder Cefyn Jones took a wider view of the regulatory setting. Titled Shifting the Goalposts, it argued that the FSA, beneath strain from the Residence Workplace, blurred the road between meals legislation and drug legislation.

“The Residence Workplace has asserted possession of cannabinoids past its correct remit, extending drug legislation into the area of meals legislation,” Jones wrote. He mentioned this amounted to regulatory overreach, noting that case legislation such because the Kanavape ruling confirmed hemp with lower than 0.2% THC was not a narcotic.

The paper additionally raised issues about conflicts of curiosity, pointing to connections between authorities advisory panels and GW Prescribed drugs, developer of the prescription CBD drugs Epidiolex. “This alignment has not enhanced public security, however as an alternative narrowed the market in ways in which serve a dominant company curiosity,” Jones argued.

What comes subsequent

Business stakeholders mentioned the Article 4 submission supplied regulators a path to revive consistency and to deliver the UK in keeping with worldwide follow. In contrast, the white paper urged scrutiny of how drug legislation has been utilized to meals and warned that enforcement actions since 2018 could also be legally unsound if Residence Workplace affect exceeded its remit.

Peter Reynolds, Chairman of the advocacy group CLEAR, founding father of the CannaPro commerce affiliation, and a former Director of the Hashish Trades Affiliation, mentioned the FSA’s dealing with of CBD has already devastated the UK market. He recalled that whole-plant extracts “turned enormously in style with British individuals” a couple of decade in the past, providing protected and efficient dietary supplements, earlier than regulators imposed a “bureaucratic course of” beneath novel meals guidelines. He mentioned the end result has been the closure of a whole bunch of companies, the lack of 1000’s of jobs, and the elimination of many beneficial full-spectrum merchandise, leaving primarily “ineffective” CBD isolate oils available on the market.

Blaming Huge Pharma

Reynolds argued that pharmaceutical pursuits and massive enterprise pushed for tighter controls as a result of they have been “alarmed that they have been lacking out,” and he welcomed the Article 4 submitting as the right authorized course of to reverse what he known as the FSA’s “conflict on CBD.”

The FSA has not but indicated whether or not it should rethink its place. Advocates mentioned readability is urgently wanted to resolve uncertainty that has left firms in limbo. “The underside line is that hemp is a meals,” the submission concluded. “Any regulatory framework that ignores this easy truth will proceed to distort the market and undermine truthful competitors.”

FSA’s central position

After CBD was designated a “novel meals” in 2019, the UK’s Meals Requirements Company (FSA) and Meals Requirements Scotland (FSS) have seen many firms’ functions transfer via a number of phases: first validation (“awaiting proof”), then security evaluation, then risk-management assessment, and at last ministerial authorisation. As of mid-2025, there are about 11,500 CBD meals merchandise listed on the FSA’s Public Listing, that are linked to functions which can be progressing or beneath assessment.

Signatories to the Article 4 submission embrace Allworld Merchandise, Huge Chief Hemp, Bnatural, Brown’s CBD, CBD Brother, CBD One, CBD-UK, Crop England, Blissful Hemper, Hempen Natural, Jersey Hemp, Naturally Pure Lab, Naturecan, Orange County, Ortis Wellbeing, and Mission Forty8.