New-to-market drinks brand Skip has launched what it claims is the first CBD beverage fully compliant with category regulations.
Skip’s CBD drinks, which have rolled out in Peach & Ginger, Elderflower & Mint and Lemon & Basil (rsp: from £1.79/250ml), are made using cold-pressed CBD derived from hemp oil.
The Food Standards Agency has exempted some hemp and related products like cold-pressed hemp seed oils from novel foods regulation, as there is evidence of their consumption prior to 1997.
Skip, which contains 5mg of CBD per can – below the FSA’s acceptable daily intake (ADI) guidance – would give “buyers a product range which navigates the tightening regulatory environment around CBD”, the brand said.
The products were ideal for “variety of channels from supermarkets and convenience stores to wholesale, health food operators and foodservice”, it added.
Skip said its range had been developed using “the highest quality cold-pressed active CBD” with the help of researchers from the University of Oxford.
The brand’s co-founder, Adam Pritchard was a strategic advisor and shareholder in Love Hemp prior to its sale to medical cannabis investment firm World High Life.
Pritchard said the brand was currently in talks with “all the major UK retailers about stocking the brand”.
“Skip is the future of CBD drinks. It is the only CBD drink in the market which is fully compliant and future-proof,” he said. “Our category defining CBD is pressed and created in the UK and our proprietary process allows it to sit outside any regulations related to novel foods imposed by the FSA since March 2020.”
Skip delivered “credibility, certainty and efficacy for both trade and consumers” with a suggested rsp that ensured “mass market penetration”, he added.
The Grocer understands other functional drinks brands are readying cold-pressed CBD drinks of their own to circumvent regulatory challenges in CBD.
Existing products currently going through the novel foods process are allowed to be sold in the UK provided they are on the FSA’s public list, but are not fully authorised for sale.
The list – closed to new entries since June 2022 – has largely prevented NPD in ingestible CBD.
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