A UK stakeholder group says the handling of a request to revisit CBD’s regulatory status is raising new doubts about whether the UK’s food approval system is working as intended.
The dispute is the latest development in a slow-moving CBD approval process under the Food Standards Agency (FSA) that remains largely unresolved years after regulators first began reviewing such products.
Newest challenge
The recent appeal centers on a formal request to the FSA filed under Article 4 of the novel foods framework by Hemp Hound, a consultancy, and signed by a group of industry stakeholders.
The Article 4 submission argues that certain whole-plant hemp foods — including full-spectrum and broad-spectrum extracts — should not automatically be treated as novel under UK law. Under the framework, foods not commonly consumed before May 1997 must undergo the novel foods authorization process.
If accepted, the challenge could reshape how regulators classify CBD and other hemp-derived foods in the UK.
Handling concerns
Cefyn Jones of the consultancy Hemp Hound has questioned how the FSA is handling the Article 4 process, saying that it discussed his submission in a meeting with the Cannabis Trade Association (CTA) without his presence, despite the agency’s stated position that it does not discuss filings with third parties.
However, “I have the CTA’s recount of the meeting on record, and an FOI response confirmed that a meeting did happen,” Jones said.
The Freedom of Information response showed the meeting took place on Oct. 3, 2025, at the CTA’s request, but no clear official record of the discussion appears to exist, Jones said.
“The same FOI response shows an absence of an auditable record of the third-party meeting the FSA initially said didn’t occur, which surely constitutes a serious governance failure,” he added.
Asked by HempToday about its handling of the Article 4 submission process, including whether it discussed filings with third parties and how confidentiality is maintained, the FSA said: “We take the confidentiality of submissions and applications seriously and do not share application details with third parties without the applicant’s consent.”
Clogged pipeline
Since first signalling in 2019 that cannabidiol (CBD) products should be regulated as novel foods, the FSA’s effort to bring the CBD market into compliance has been marked by delays, confusion and stakeholder pushback.
As of early 2026, 11,456 CBD products were listed on the FSA’s public register. Roughly 10,200 were still marked “awaiting evidence,” 900 were under safety assessment, 250 were in risk management, and 106 had been authorized or green-lighted. Another 409 products had been removed or disqualified.
Those figures underline a persistent feature of the system: most CBD products continue to operate under provisional status, with outcomes dependent on internal FSA review stages that are slow-moving and sometimes opaque to the market.
Historical argument
Hemp Hound’s challenge to the food safety approval system contends that traditional production methods such as cold pressing, tincturing, and ethanol extraction, have a documented history of use before the May 1997 cutoff date that defines novel foods.
EU regulators faced a similar historical argument in 2019, when updated language in the European Commission’s Novel Food Catalogue effectively designated CBD and other hemp extracts as new or “novel” foods, triggering costly authorization requirements.
European stakeholders led by the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) pushed back, arguing that hemp extracts had a documented history of use in food before 1997 and warning the change would create legal uncertainty and fuel grey markets. Despite that challenge, the EU’s 2019 interpretation largely stood, cementing CBD’s treatment as a novel food across the bloc.
Hemp Hound’s challenge in the UK argues that CBD-rich hemp oils made with traditional processes are not new foods but established ones. “Hemp oil which contains CBD and is produced by cold pressing has a history of consumption,” according to the filing, which contends that evidence from food, beverages, and herbal preparations of the past all supported that conclusion.
Signatories to the Hemp Hound Article 4 submission include Allworld Products, Big Chief Hemp, Bnatural, Brown’s CBD, CBD Brother, CBD One, CBD-UK, Crop England, Happy Hemper, Hempen Organic, Jersey Hemp, Naturally Pure Lab, Naturecan, Orange County, Ortis Wellbeing, and Project Forty8.