Holland & Barrett has removed a CBD-infused tea from sale based on a faulty report from Trading Standards, it has been alleged.
The retailer told Tea+ its CBD Tea had been pulled from sale and much of the stock quarantined in January. Meanwhile, some customers were refused sale after they found the product on shelves, The Grocer understands.
The withdrawal followed a Trading Standards report that was “categorically incorrect and full of misinformation”, claimed Alex Tofalos, director at CBD One, which supplies the CBD for Tea+.
Officers from Cambridgeshire, Warwickshire and Kent had found various faults with the product, including lower levels of CBD than stated on the packaging and illegal levels of psychoactive substance THC.
However, Tofalos argued Trading Standards had used the wrong test to determine the CBD levels of the teabags, since water-soluble CBD cannot be assessed in the same way as CBD oils.
The officers had misunderstood the acceptable amounts of THC stipulated in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 by confusing different measurement units, he claimed.
Officers were also allegedly unable to find the brand’s novel foods application on the Food Standards Agency’s public list for CBD, although The Grocer has verified the listing.
“Trading Standards were going off down a dead end as they clearly lacked the correct knowledge on what they were testing,” Tofalos said.
Neither Trading Standards nor Holland & Barrett responded to requests for comment.
An inside source said Trading Standards officers had left the brand and retailer to resolve the situation. The source said the matter was “closed” from the perspective of Trading Standards. “Holland & Barrett was a good sales channel, with increasing purchase orders and sales going up” for CBD Tea, the source added.
Before the incident, around 60%-70% of the brand’s sales came from Holland & Barrett, which stocked the product across its estate. Since the dispute, Amazon has become the main sales channel for CBD Tea.
While Tea+ had lost a product in a major retailer that was “selling really well”, the source said the issue was more concerning for the wider CBD industry, which could face similar delistings.
Tofalos also pointed to the financial repercussions. “From our position as CBD One, this has cost us tens of thousands in income and a valuable customer,” he said.
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