A group of hemp industry stakeholders has formally asked the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) to clarify whether whole-plant hemp extracts should be treated as novel foods, arguing that they have a long history of safe use and should fall under general food law. The request challenges the regulator’s long-standing position and calls for a realignment with historical evidence.
The request, created by consultant The Hemp Hound Agency, was undersigned by a group of stakeholders. Known as an Article 4 filing, it asked the FSA to recognize that full-spectrum and broad-spectrum extracts produced through traditional methods such as cold pressing, tincturing, and ethanol extraction had a well-documented history of use before the May 1997 cut-off date that defines novel foods.
Under UK and European food law, companies can ask regulators to decide whether a product should be treated as a “novel food” through an Article 4 filing. Such requests are essentially clarification cases: if a product is deemed non-novel, it can be sold under normal food rules; if it is ruled novel, it must undergo a lengthy and costly authorization process before it can be placed on the market.
Historic use cited
The filing pointed to European Commission and UK records showing hemp flowers were used in teas, brewing, and flavorings, and that hemp extract beverages were lawfully traded in 1997. Foods not consumed in Europe prior to 1997 are considered new or “novel” foods, and must gain approval from the European Food Safety Authority to be sold. In the UK, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) still uses this mechanism after Brexit, since the rules were carried over into domestic law.
“CBD did not suddenly appear in the last 10 years. It has always been a natural constituent of hemp foods,” the submission said.
It argued 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,” the authors wrote, adding that evidence from food, beverages, and herbal preparations all supported this conclusion.
Whole-plant vs isolates
The submission drew a distinction between whole-plant derivatives and purified cannabinoid isolates. While isolates and synthetic CBD could properly fall under novel food and drug-law frameworks, the authors said whole-plant products with less than 0.2% THC should remain under general food law.
“Selective extracts like isolates are a different category altogether,” the paper noted. “Unselective extracts such as cold-press oils or tinctures preserve the natural balance of the plant and fall within traditional food processes.”
Critique of THC limits
The Article 4 document also challenged the FSA’s current 50-microgram-per-serving cap on THC in food, calling it arbitrary and unsupported by food law. “This limit has no basis in science or proportionality,” the submission argued. Instead, it pointed to a 2025 advisory committee finding that 1 microgram per kilogram of body weight per day was a proportionate threshold.
The authors urged regulators to align UK policy with jurisdictions such as Switzerland, Canada, and the United States, where whole-plant hemp oils are not treated as novel foods.
Call for clarity
The submission asked the FSA to:
- Formally recognize whole-plant hemp oils as non-novel foods.
- Withdraw the current THC per-serving limit.
- Publish clear definitions separating seed oils, whole-plant extracts, and isolates.
- Establish transparent consultation with industry.
“Hemp’s food history is undeniable, yet businesses are being treated as if they are handling controlled drugs,” the authors said. “This is neither lawful nor fair.”
A broader critique
In parallel, a new white paper from The Hemp Hound founder Cefyn Jones took a wider view of the regulatory environment. Titled Moving the Goalposts, it argued that the FSA, under pressure from the Home Office, blurred the line between food law and drug law.
“The Home Office has asserted ownership of cannabinoids beyond its proper remit, extending drug law into the domain of food law,” Jones wrote. He said this amounted to regulatory overreach, noting that case law such as the Kanavape ruling confirmed hemp with less than 0.2% THC was not a narcotic.
The paper also raised concerns about conflicts of interest, pointing to connections between government advisory panels and GW Pharmaceuticals, developer of the prescription CBD medicine Epidiolex. “This alignment has not enhanced public safety, but instead narrowed the market in ways that serve a dominant corporate interest,” Jones argued.
What comes next
Industry stakeholders said the Article 4 submission offered regulators a path to restore consistency and to bring the UK in line with international practice. By contrast, the white paper urged scrutiny of how drug law has been applied to foods and warned that enforcement actions since 2018 may be legally unsound if Home Office influence exceeded its remit.
Peter Reynolds, Chairman of the advocacy group CLEAR, founder of the CannaPro trade association, and a former Director of the Cannabis Trades Association, said the FSA’s handling of CBD has already devastated the UK market. He recalled that whole-plant extracts “became enormously popular with British people” about a decade ago, offering safe and effective supplements, before regulators imposed a “bureaucratic process” under novel foods rules. He said the result has been the closure of hundreds of businesses, the loss of thousands of jobs, and the removal of many valuable full-spectrum products, leaving mainly “ineffective” CBD isolate oils on the market.
Blaming Big Pharma
Reynolds argued that pharmaceutical interests and big business pushed for tighter controls because they were “alarmed that they were missing out,” and he welcomed the Article 4 filing as the proper legal process to reverse what he called the FSA’s “war on CBD.”
The FSA has not yet indicated whether it will reconsider its position. Advocates said clarity is urgently needed to resolve uncertainty that has left companies in limbo. “The bottom line is that hemp is a food,” the submission concluded. “Any regulatory framework that ignores this simple fact will continue to distort the market and undermine fair competition.”
FSA’s central role
After CBD was designated a “novel food” in 2019, the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) have seen many companies’ applications move through multiple stages: first validation (“awaiting evidence”), then safety assessment, then risk-management review, and finally ministerial authorisation. As of mid-2025, there are about 11,500 CBD food products listed on the FSA’s Public List, which are linked to applications that are progressing or under review.
Signatories to the 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.