Ahead of the UK Food Standards Association’s March 2021 deadline for CBD Novel Foods Applications, CBD oil testing and toxicology service, Eos Scientific, has launched a discounted Novel Foods Submissions Service to help smaller CBD brands submit their applications to the FSA in time.
Eos Scientific says this “heavily discounted” service will cost between £40,000 – £100,000, which it compared to a “typical average average cost of launching a Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) to market of £500,000”. The company says the service provides for a “full end-to-end regulatory service, including toxicology studies, where required”.
Commenting on the impact that the FSA regulations will have on the CBD market CEO, Simon Manthorpe, said: “We are going to see a massive shrinking in the number of brands selling edible or orally administered products in the UK and EU. The cost of a Novel Foods Submission will be cost prohibitive for many companies and we expect less than 100 brands to have made valid submissions by the deadline of March 31st 2021.
“In 2019 the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis estimated the UK market to be worth £300m and expected it to grow to £1 billion by 2025. The product split across vapeable, topical and edible/oral shows that edible/oral products account for more than 50% of the market. Furthermore we expect more than 50% of the brands in the market currently selling edible/oral products will drop out completely or switch to vapeable and/or topical products only.
“This will leave some huge gaps in terms of product choice for retailers and ultimately consumers, but from the industry perspective whoever survives this process will have access to far more of the market than was previously available. The value in the sub-category wont drop, if anything it will increase as consumer confidence builds once regulation is in place.”