Health food giant Holland & Barrett is selling ‘illegal’ CBD oils, according to a Daily Mail investigation
Its website claims that Jacob Hooy CBD oil is ‘non-psychoactive and the content of THC is tested on every batch to meet specification requirements of less than 0.05 per cent.’
However, the Jacob Hooy website states that a 10ml bottle contains 4.4mg of THC – more than four times the legal per-container limit.
One bottle of Jacob Hooy obtained as part of the investigation was found to contain 12.4mg of THC.
A spokesperson for Holland & Barrett told The CANNAVIST:
“As a food supplement, CBD Oil is clearly not designed for administration of controlled cannabinoids as evidenced by its packaging and labelling.
“The presence of negligible quantities of controlled cannabinoids in the CBD Oil is due to the technical difficulty in obtaining pure CBD.
“The CBD Oil is nevertheless manufactured to limit the presence of THC and we always verify that suppliers employ quality controls to minimise residues of THC in CBD products to negligible levels.”
While Jacob Hooy is marketed as a food supplement, the relatively high THC content in some of its bottles is at odds with Home Office guidelines.
The UK government has faced pressure to rein-in the CBD industry.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has advised CBD companies to seek Novel Foods authorisation for their products.
Novel foods require extensive safety testing in order to gain premarket authorisation to be sold in the UK.
However, the FSA is yet to announce any enforcement actions.
Rebecca Sudworth, director of policy at the FSA, said:
“The FSA has persistently made clear to the CBD industry that they need to apply for authorisation.
“If we don’t see compliance soon we will take further action.
“If any evidence is found to suggest CBD is harmful, it will be removed from shelves immediately.”
The CANNAVIST asked the spokesperson how one bottle was found to contain so much THC and whether they were aware of the 1mg per container limit. They have not yet responded.
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