Holland & Barrett has temporarily withdrawn around 30 CBD products from shelves following new guidance from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on recommended daily intakes.
The new FSA guidance recommends healthy adults should limit their consumption of CBD from food to 10mg per day (about 4-5 drops of 5% CBD oil), a dramatic drop from the previous 70mg.
In a statement, Holland & Barrett said: “We are reviewing the latest voluntary guidance from the FSA on the recommended daily dose for ingestible CBD products, and whilst it remains legal for these products to remain on sale, we are acting in an abundance of caution and are temporarily withdrawing some products where customers cannot choose to only use 10mg a day, so we can make sure we are giving our customers the latest guidance on safe usage of these products for short and long term use.
“This is a temporary measure so we can make sure we are giving our customers the latest guidance across our website product descriptions and to make sure our colleagues have received revised training to be able to answer customer questions on this.
“We are committed to working with the FSA and the wider industry to share safety data as the FSA continue to develop their thinking on this topic.”
The retailer added that it “goes to great lengths to make sure all the CBD ranges we stock meet our high standards for purity, quality, and safety, as backed by leading trade associations and expert laboratories”.
It says all its suppliers are carefully vetted to ensure they comply with all current statutory Food Standards Agency requirements in order to legally sell CBD products in the United Kingdom. In addition, it says, suppliers to H&B are required go through internal checks to ensure each batch of their products have been analysed for quality and purity by independent laboratories.