Polish Supreme Court validates the use of hemp in foodstuffs

It's kind of like the Polish version of the French battle All About CBD Flowers. Kombinat Konopny has won a major legal victory for the hemp industry. The Supreme Administrative Court ruled in its favor against the Polish regulator, the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate (CSI).

To understand this issue, we must first explain the European regulations. Since 2018, the European Union (EU) has required that any food not consumed before 1997 undergo a (lengthy) authorization process, known as novel food, to be sold on the market. For example, chia seeds are among them.

CBD, as a molecule, can also to be regarded as such. But not in all its forms, as the Polish Supreme Court points out.

The product in question: hemp-based dietary supplements.

In 2019, the Polish regulatory authority removed a product from the market that was sold by the company Kombinat Konopny. The reason given was that these hemp capsules had not been approved. novel food. And so the legal proceedings began. The company first filed a lawsuit in a Warsaw court, but lost the case. It then appealed and ended up before the Supreme Administrative Court.

Hemp was used in food long before 1997

«The regulator first misinterpreted the Novel Food regulations and then initiated an incomplete legal proceeding, disregarding the documentation provided by the opposing party as well as the evidence presented by the authorities—evidence they could not have been unaware of.», the court ruling states, reported by Hemp Today. 

To secure this victory, the wife and business partner of Kombinat Konopny’s CEO dug through the archives. She had to prove to the court that the Hemp was used in food in Europe well before 1997. This is particularly true in Eastern Europe, such as in Latvia, where he is part of the culinary culture.

«The irrefutable evidence presented by the party indicates that hemp was historically consumed as food and as a dietary supplement to a normal diet.», ", the Court continues.

This court ruling could help many other European countries. Since Poland is part of the European Union, other hemp sellers in the EU will be able to cite this ruling to support their arguments.