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What the First CBD Authorisations Would Put on the Label

The FSA's 3 September board paper recommends the first three CBD novel food authorisations — with a 10 mg/day figure on pack and four warning groups. Here is what would change for a shopper, and what has not changed yet.

By Staff, CBD Wire

A board paper published on GOV.UK on 3 September is being read in a lot of places as “CBD is about to be legal”. It is worth reading the conditions instead, because the conditions are the part that ends up on a bottle.

The paper is the Food Standards Agency’s recommendations to ministers on the first CBD novel food authorisations, going to the FSA’s September 2026 board meeting. It applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Three applications: RP 7 synthetic CBD, RP 350 CBD isolate and RP 427 CBD isolate. All are high-purity — at least 98% — and, per the paper, are “intended for adults at a maximum dose of 10 mg/day”. The FSA and Food Standards Scotland published positive safety opinions on all three, on advice from the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes, and then consulted.

The label, if ministers agree

This is the practical bit. The proposals set out that products must carry the provisional acceptable daily intake of 10 mg/day on pack, plus warnings for under-18s; for people who are pregnant, breastfeeding or trying to conceive; and for those taking medication or who are immunosuppressed. Authorisation would come with strict specifications, including low limits for delta-9-THC and other controlled cannabinoids.

Four warning groups and a number. That is a different-looking shelf from the one we have now, where the number a shopper sees is usually a marketing one.

The FSA says it received 46 consultation responses, with 68% of respondents supporting the proposals, and has proposed targeted changes in response.

What has not changed

Nothing here is an authorisation. The FSA advises ministers; the paper says plainly that “it is Ministers that will make the final decision”. The public list, in the material we could open, works as an enforcement tool rather than a stamp of approval. The paper puts it without ceremony: local authorities are advised to prioritise enforcement towards products not on the list, and “this does not alter the fact that CBD products remain unauthorised novel foods”.

We wrote last week about the register the FSA’s own guidance points to, and the same caution applies: listed is not authorised, and a recommendation is not a rule.

One more thing worth holding. The paper notes that the European Food Safety Authority has not yet published any positive safety assessments of CBD novel foods, and that EFSA’s own provisional assessment sets a safe dose of about 2 mg a day for a 70 kg adult — roughly a fifth of the FSA’s figure. The FSA says it remains confident in its own 10 mg/day provisional ADI. Two regulators, different datasets, the same open questions.

For now, buy on paperwork: check the product against the list, then check the price per milligram. CBD products are food supplements, not medicines, and the intake advice above is the regulator’s, for adults.