Foodlaw-Reading
Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK
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FSA News Item, 11 March 2021
CBD businesses should continue to submit their novel food applications before the 31 March 2021 deadline.
PThe Food Standards Agency is reiterating its advice to the CBD industry to submit their novel food applications and move towards compliance with novel food regulations. Companies with suitably validated applications should then be able to continue selling their products in England and Wales until they have been considered by independent scientific committees and a decision on authorisation has been made.
The criteria for products which can remain on sale from 1 April 2021 has been updated. Previously, only products which were on sale at the time of the FSA’s announcement (13 February 2020) and were linked to an application which had been validated by 31 March 2021 were to be included. To maximise the opportunity to pass validation, this now includes all products on sale on 13 February 2020 and linked to an application submitted before 31 March 2021 that is subsequently validated.
Emily Miles, Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency, said:
‘Applying for novel food authorisation is the only way CBD products can remain on sale here. For the past year, we’ve been encouraging all businesses to submit good quality applications as a matter of urgency. However, we have received a large number of applications close to the deadline. This means that, in order to process these properly, we are adapting the criteria of products allowed to remain on sale from 1 April. For some time now we’ve been supporting a pragmatic and proportionate approach to CBD regulation. Our commitment to ensuring that consumers know these products are being checked for safety remains firm.'
Applications are subject to an 8-day admin check, and it can then take up to 30 working days for an application to be validated. These validated applications will then continue through an authorisation process that undertakes checks on safety to determine whether products can be authorised for sale.
A list of products linked to validated applications will be published on the FSA’s website in April and regularly updated.
The FSA will also publish a list of products associated with applications which have not yet fully met the legal requirements to be validated but have set out sufficiently robust plans to prove they are fully committed to delivering the remaining information required. This will include evidence of plans to complete the risk assessment process, with a clear deadline for submission of the outstanding information.
Validation is not the same as authorisation, and there is no guarantee that a validated application will eventually be authorised – each application must follow the comprehensive risk analysis process.
Local authorities will continue to enforce novel food legislation. We have advised them that only products which were on sale at the time of the FSA’s announcement and are linked to a suitable novel food application submitted before 31 March 2021 should remain on sale from 1 April 2021.
