NEWS
Not So Novel
After All
The US is facing its own novel foods debate as the Food and Drug Administration puts
together a committee to decide whether or not CBD should be part of the food chain.
The US Food and Drug Administration is setting
up a committee which could lay the groundwork
for the legalisation of CBD in food in The States.
“Almost every meeting I go into on
Capitol Hill, I get asked about this.
We’ve never done this before. It would
be a highly novel rulemaking process.”
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VAPOUROUND CBD MAGAZINE
Dr Gottlieb suggested that CBD could, “potentially
exist in a high concentration, pure formulation
as a pharmaceutical product,” but also in lower
concentrations in foods and dietary supplements.
The FDA can only contemplate putting CBD into the
American food supply if it goes through the rulemaking
process, which involves another US agency, the one
which makes the rules on legal and illegal drugs.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will have
to formally de-schedule hemp-derived CBD and
distinguish it from CBD derived from marijuana once
and for all.
Gottlieb said:
“We’re getting started right now. We’ve briefed staff
on our thinking here. Almost every meeting I go into
on Capitol Hill, I get asked about this. I think that
we’d work through an efficient process and probably
have some recommendations certainly this summer.”
Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced in March that
he is to step down from his role as head of the FDA
at an unspecified date. He will be replaced by the
current Director of the National Cancer Institute
Ned Sharpless.
The US Food and Drug Administration is setting up
a committee which could lay the groundwork for the
legalisation of CBD in food in The States.
The top man at the FDA is commissioner and doctor
Scott Gottlieb.
He recently answered questions in an interview
with Bloomberg reporter Anna Edney days after
giving testimony before the House Appropriations
Committee in Washington DC.
He said:
“The issue for us is, the Farm Bill has passed, hemp’s
now legalised. Legitimate food companies want to
look at putting CBD into the food supply. But because
CBD didn’t previously exist in the food supply, and
it exists as a drug, under the statute it’s either a drug
or subject to substantial clinical experimentation.
It can’t just be put into the food supply.”
“We’ve never done this before. It would be a highly
novel rulemaking process.”
The committee, chaired by FDA commissioner for food
and drugs Amy Abernethy and associate commissioner
for policy, Lowell Shiller, will look at potential legislative
pathways that could create a framework to allow CBD
into the food chain.