The DGCCRF launches controls on CBD products

For the past couple of weeks, the Direction Générale de la Consommation, de la Concurrence et de la Répression des Fraudes (DGCCRF) has been monitoring suppliers of CBD products.

And yet, CBD is no more regulated today than it was in the past. So what is the basis for these controls? On the basis of an internal memo from the Direction Générale de l'Alimentation (DGAL), which would henceforth only tolerate CBD products containing less than 50 mg/day as the recommended daily dose of CBD, or 20% in CBD concentration.

If these new directives mean nothing to you, that's normal: there are no regulations or laws to back them up. On the other hand, their origin is well known. These unofficial «limits» have been defended by the Union des Industriels pour la valorisation des extraits de chanvre (UIVEC) to the food authorities, as UIVEC explained at the recent colloquium at the French National Assembly or from Moniteur des pharmacies.

«It's a set of criteria and legal interpretations shared by certain administrations,» explains Ludovic Rachou, President of UIVEC.

This threshold would have been determined to avoid confusion of uses - in particular with the medical cannabis experimentation - and, as a precautionary measure, to avoid risk of drug interactions with CBD. Because «it's in the most concentrated products that we have the most problems. There's also more risk of traces of THC. Hence the 20% limit», he adds to Le Moniteur.

As we understand it, controls focus on stock traceability (batch numbers, etc.), the absence of therapeutic claims and daily dosage indications, which must not exceed 50 mg/day.

The term Novel Food is also widely used during controls. However, this classification, which France does not apply, only concerns CBD isolates, not whole plant extracts of the broad spectrum or full spectrum type. However, some controls have focused on CBD oils. full-spectrum 10 and 20%, below the DGAL's reference thresholds, and others in food products such as CBD 30% oils, herbal teas or CBD sweets.

According to the administration's statements to one of the companies inspected, the analyses should take a month (for one manufacturer) and cover in fine all products marketed in France.

When questioned, the DGCCRF has not yet replied.