FDA Says No Way To Food Companies Wanting To Get On The CBD Gravy Train

As several major food makers are champing at the bit to cash in on the CBD food and drinks craze, it seems the FDA is still not down with the program.

While all products containing CBD, or cannabidiol, are illegal under the FDA’s rules and regs whether they're part of food, bubbly drinks consumed on the Pickleball court or dietary supplements, the FDA is inordinately strict about CBD-laced food and justifiably abhors “copycat” candy edibles containing THC. 

The agency recently warned Congress that any attempts to legalize CBD in food products would put public health at risk. Shortly after, a bipartisan group of House members sent a letter to the FDA commissioner to complain about the agency's “completely insufficient response” to their bill, which called for hemp-derived CBD to be permitted and regulated as a food additive. 

Enter Food And Beverage Companies: Who Can Blame Them?

The FDA’s position to allow or not to allow CBD in food and beverages could have huge implications for a particular $1 trillion market, that is to say: food. 

Several major food and drink makers, like Molson Coors MXGBF, have launched their own lines of CBD-infused products. And many more, from Anheuser-Busch BUD to Mondelez International MDLZ are all eager to do the same. 

However, food companies are having to cool their jets until they get the go-ahead from the FDA, said Roberta Wagner, vice president of regulatory and technical affairs for the Consumer Brands Association, which represents food makers like General Mills GIS, Hostess TWNK and Campbell’s Soup CPB.

The FDA’s hardline CBD food stance contrasts with the agency’s approach toward CBD in dietary supplements. Many professionals agree that there is woefully insufficient research on the health risks of adding CBD to food and all things cannabis for that matter. 

But Still...

“They seem to concede that there should be a pathway for dietary supplements, but they seem opposed to food and beverages,” said Jonathan Miller, the general counsel of the Hemp Roundtable.

Wagner, per STAT, agrees. “Our members want a regulatory pathway established for CBD … before they’re ever going to start introducing those products to the marketplace. They’re just not going to take the risks when the FDA has come straight out and said CBD is not allowed for use in conventional foods.”

A regulatory path…isn’t that what everyone involved in this wild and crazy industry wants? 

Photo: Benzinga creation, Wikipedia Commons