The Food Standards Agency has added thousands of products to its list of CBD lines allowed to remain on the market.
Some 2,500 products joined the list on 27 April, bringing the total to almost 6,000. The additions included brands stocked by major retailers such as CBDfx, Leaf Life, Kiki, Pollen and Vita Coco.
The update comes after weeks of uncertainty caused by the original list, with Trading Standards officers and retailers told to remove unlisted products from sale even though the FSA had confirmed to some brands they would soon be added.
The agency today confirmed 700 products had been missed off because of a “clerical error”, while 1,700 lines had been added because brands supplied further evidence after the initial list was released.
“Most additions to the public list are because businesses did not supply us with the correct information before March 31,” said FSA policy director Rebecca Sudworth.
“We apologise for the small number of omissions from the original list that were the result of clerical errors. These products have now been added.”
Among the brands missed in error was CBDfx, which saw its ingestible products removed from sale by Amazon, even though it had been told by the FSA it would be added in an update just days after the original list came out.
“The delay from 4 April, when the FSA confirmed to us that our products would be included that week, has caused us reputational and financial damage which is extremely frustrating,” said CBDfx Europe MD Carlo Buckley.
“It is also disappointing, but not unexpected, that there were certain parts of the CBD industry that used the first publication of the list to weaponise their own agenda and in some cases, directly try to take us down.”
The FSA previously confirmed a second update is to take place before the end of June. It has given business a 26 May final deadline to show their CBD products meet the criteria for inclusion by having been on the market by 13 February 2020 and made progress towards full authorisation as a novel food.
The agency has said no more products will be added after 30 June.
“Businesses that wish to supply evidence for their products for possible inclusion on the public list can also provide evidence of studies they have commissioned, for example toxicological studies,” said Sudworth.
“These can have been commissioned either before or after the deadline for applications in March 2021.”
Local authorities and retailers are now advised to contact the FSA to clarify the status of any product not on the list.
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