Hempseed is not a novel food
On 17 February 2022, the Provincial Administrative Court issued a judgment in which it declared once again that hemp seed has a history of consumption. The case concerns a dietary supplement containing the herb of this plant. In the justification for the ruling, the WSA indicated that the Novel Food Catalogue maintained by the European Commission is of a legally non-binding nature, contains a non-exhaustive list and serves as an indication as to whether a given product will require authorisation in accordance with the Novel Food Regulation and, moreover, is a collection of food ingredients with information on the status of a given ingredient available at a given time.
In the judgement, the court emphasised that on the website of the European Commission it is possible to check the name of a food ingredient together with information on the status of the ingredient. For Cannabis sativa L., the Commission included the symbol V in green and the following description - in the European Union, cultivation of varieties of Cannabis sativa L. is permitted provided that they are registered in the 'Common Catalogue of Varieties of Agricultural Plant Species' and their tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content does not exceed 0.2%. Thus unequivocally determining that hemp seed (without excluding any part of this plant) has a history of use before 15 May 1997 and can be used in foodstuffs.
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