BRITISH CANNABIS® is Evolving as we Approach the Novel Foods Deadline

Moving with the times is what BRITISH CANNABIS® has consistently done for nearly 6 years and 2021 will be no exception. Read on to find out how BRITISH CANNABIS® is evolving with the Novel Foods deadline approaching.

In a UK market navigating a ‘Race to The Novel Foods Starting Line’ – the 31^st March 2021 Food Standards Agency Novel Foods exemption deadline for CBD food supplements, only suppliers with approved applications will be allowed to produce and manufacture cannabis-derived ingredients on a regular, legal and compliant basis. Read the FSA’s business guidance on cannabidiol (CBD) as novel foods here.

The ‘Green Rush’ of the past 5 years will come to a temporary halt, as the plethora of brands and investors that have entered the market (both good and bad) are rationalized. Food supplements and a range of other CBD-infused product categories are moving to a purely single-cannabinoid model.

CBD and CBD Only

Is this the end of an era? Possibly. Should it be considered bad news? Quite the opposite. At last, reliable cannabis-derived products have a path to achieving mainstream acceptance, becoming the pillar of many business plans, aiding the UK’s economy and, most importantly – helping people.

Big brands and start-up companies alike will be able to bring compliant, test-passing, trust-worthy CBD products to market.

Some enthusiastic consumers, CBD industry-stalwarts and ‘Full-Spectrum’ crusaders may lament the complete removal of even trace amounts of THC and other trace cannabinoids from consumer supplements; we understand their point, but let’s look at the big picture here and see the good news.

CBD is the first cannabis compound set to be approved for as wide a use by health-conscious consumers as a vitamin or mineral in a supplement would be.

Besides – the cannabis plant and its benefits for consumers do not start and end with cannabinoids…

There’s More to Cannabis Than Cannabinoids

For 2021 at least, cannabis-derived consumer products may be limited to one cannabinoid compound, but BRITISH CANNABIS® won’t be tied down into making one-dimensional products.

Even though it’s highly likely that just one cannabinoid (in this case, CBD) will remain on the market post 2021, we feel it’s vital to promote the multitude of other plant benefits that cannabis has to offer; it’s a veritable ‘Phytochemical Factory’.

The Art of The Plant

Through years of growing, extracting and manufacturing from EU-approved Cannabis sativa L. (‘hemp’) strains, BRITISH CANNABIS® has developed a deep understanding of this plant.

CBD is CBD, regardless of its origin, it will always carry the same molecular formula (C₂₁H₃₀O₂) and identical molecular weight of 314.4617. Providing it’s supported by a validated Novel Foods application, then anyone can use a cannabidiol compound in their products.

So, will the inclusion of CBD in a product make it special, unique or, most crucially, effective when you put it in those terms? The real priority now for our business is to harness the best-of-the-rest of the cannabis plant, to bring businesses and consumers products with real efficacy.

To talk of ‘spectrums’, be they ‘Full’, ‘Broad’, ‘Full Cannabinoid’ or other are confusing terms to consumers and not always well understood by those in industry that use them to market products. The ‘entourage effect’ that benefits the human Endo-Cannabinoid System, relies not just on having cannabinoids present, but on all of the other 11 major phytochemical groups in cannabis too. It is our understanding and passion for these compounds that will stand our company apart moving forward.

This is why BRITISH CANNABIS® is switching the focus of our fields, labs and factories, to delivering an even-more dynamic approach to making cannabis-products.

A Full-Service Cannabis Company

Not tied to one farm or biomass source, BRITISH CANNABIS® will be a one-stop product development company, aggregating the very best components of the cannabis plant and creating ingredients, products and services that customers want to get behind.

Our CBD will be selected from the best partner suppliers for the project at-hand and selected in particular to stay within local laws, wherever our international customers need to launch products.

This is how we will ensure Novel Foods compliance, from today and into the future:

• Our CBD ingredients will always be supported by Novel Foods exemption applications;
• All of our other cannabis extracts fall outside the scope of Novel Foods;
• We have perfected methods which are traditional, solvent free, non-selective and 100% natural for these other extractions

We sincerely hope that our customers, existing and new alike, will benefit from this approach, as we free our company from the risk of relying on the outcome of a single Novel Foods application.

Here’s to more award-winning products, great new white label brands and an innovative new range of ingredients.

Watch this space as we are excited for what is to come in 2021.

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