German government sides with hemp association on CBD novel food debate

05 Mar 2020 --- Cannabidiol (CBD) isolates and CBD-enriched hemp extracts are “novel” but there are scant grounds for CBD products to be classified as novel foods (NF), the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) has communicated to the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) in a letter. Considering Germany is the largest market for CBD in the EU, the EIHA regards the German government’s endorsement as instrumental to continuing its efforts to clarify rules on CBD and hemp extracts.

Regarding the correct assessment of the safety of CBD, the EIHA has long been butting heads with the German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL), an independent federal authority in the business area of the BMEL, which has claimed that all hemp foodstuffs should fall under NF rules.

Novel foods must undergo a pre-market food safety assessment and authorization that requires an expensive and time-consuming registration process before it can be legally marketed in the EU. The EIHA was astounded by the BVL’s erroneous understanding of CBD products’ safety and deemed its online publication from March 2019 as “factually and legally incorrect and inaccurate.” The hemp agency also highlights that the absence a NF status would not consequently translate into an entirely unregulated CBD market. Instead, the organization advocates for integrating hemp plants to existing food and food supplements regulations.

The EIHA believes that hemp leaves and flowers should not be considered novel food. “The assumption that not being classified as NF means not being classified at all is simply wrong. The hemp sector is asking for a clear and fair legal framework in the EU. Given rules for food, cosmetics, feed and food supplements in the EU already exist, the EIHA appeals to the EU for these rules to be applied to hemp as well. We want a real single market for hemp-derived products like any other agri-crop,” Lorenza Romanese, Managing Director at the EIHA, tells NutritionInsight. 

“The BVL must differentiate between extracts with the natural spectrum of cannabinoids contained in the hemp plant on the one hand and products enriched with isolates or with cannabinoids on the other. Otherwise, there will be even more uncertainty for the hemp food industry and consumers in Germany,” adds the EIHA’s President Daniel Kruse.

Enforcement of NF status is a Member State affair, while variations in enforcement from country to country within the EU could be expected. The EIHA anticipates a range of implications if EU Member States do enforce the NF catalog, including a loss of jobs in CBD production and sales, competitiveness for EU enterprises and market control. 

On the contrary, the benefits of introducing a legal framework for CBD products include public health service cost reductions, increased tax revenues, new job creation and the guarantee of an equal playing field across the CBD supply chain, the EIHA highlights. 

Consumed for centuries
The EU defines NF as food that had not been consumed to a significant degree by humans in the EU before 15 May 1997, when the first Regulation on NF came into force. The EIHA has been collecting extensive tangible evidence demonstrating that hemp products have been consumed for centuries. Notable proof includes a reference to cannabis on a ceiling inscription on the Tower of Bologna, Italy, built in the 13th century. Mentions of hemp extracts, flowers, leaves and even soup and soft drinks have also been found in documents long predating 1997 hailing from Sweden, Ireland, Germany, Lithuania and the Vatican.

Latin inscriptions in the 13th centurny Tower of Bologna read "Bread is Life, Cannabis is Protection, Wine is Joy."The EIHA further strengthens its position with an EU Commission declaration from 1998, which states that “foods containing parts of the hemp plant, such as hemp leaves and flowers, are not covered by EC Regulation No 258/97 on novel foods and novel food ingredients.”

Currently, the EIHA is waiting for the BVL to amend its online publications about CBD. “It also remains to be seen whether the BVL will now agree to a meeting of experts, which the EIHA has already requested several times,” the hemp advocate affirms.

In the meantime, EIHA is preparing an NF application for CBD isolates and CBD-enriched hemp extract. “That’s why we are not only covering hemp extracts but many other dossiers that need to be regulated,” Romanese continues, pointing to continued discussions with the BMEL on the future of CBD products in the pipeline.

By Anni Schleicher