SINCE 2020’s controversial Kanavape case, the European hemp industry has continued to develop at a rapid pace.
At the forefront of this evolution is the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA), which is in the midst of conducting major THC toxicological studies which could bring yet more change to the burgeoning sector.
Ahead of Cannabis Europa London 2022 we spoke to the organisation’s managing director Lorenza Romanese about the current state of European hemp, and what needs to be done for its evolution to continue.
Thanks for joining us Lorzena, could you start by telling us a bit about yourself and the work you do over at the EIHA.
My name is Lorenza Romanese, I’m the managing director of the EIHA . We are a small team of five based here in Brussels, and we represent and defend the three main actors along the supply chain of hemp, the producers, the manufacturers and processing companies, and the traders.
We are a company driven association, meaning that companies pay a membership fee to enjoy benefits, including receiving industry updates on a regular basis. They get the information from us, and our members are our source of information.
We aim to grasp information from the sector and translate it into policy messages, and try to solve the problems of the companies on the market. We also collect information from the main DGs (Directorate-Generals for the European Commission), which is like the ministry for the rest of the member states. This is what we do.
Last month saw the publication of the UK FSA’s Novel Foods Public List, you must have been pleased to see a number of the EIHA consortium members included?
The EIHA is very, very happy about the publication of the list. Of course, we regret the delay, we were waiting for the list for one year.
But we definitely welcome the publication, we are very happy that both our applications are now displayed on their on-hold list. Let’s recall that the on-hold list is for the companies and applications that still have some toxicological studies going on, as in our case.
Once the toxicological studies are concluded, then we will upload the report to support the safety of our products into the FSA portal. Then we should be able to move to the validated list.
Surely the on-hold list and the validated list gives the possibility to operate and stay on the market.
The safety evaluation of these products will be done, as will the risk assessment, at a later stage within the FSA as well as with EFSA in Europe. So today it’s more about administration and the willingness to invest in toxicological studies, and then the risk assessment will come later.
You mentioned in a press release ‘inaccuracies, inconsistencies and indeed a few surprising absences on the list’, can you explain what you meant here?
Let me underline again, that we really welcome the approach and the willingness from FSA to regulate this market. Probably all of us, even us as a trade association, underestimated the size of the market.
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By BEN STEVENS
APRIL 13, 2022
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Source : Business CANN
Link to original : Worlds Largest THC Toxicological Study Shows ‘Very Positive’ Signs So Far
