And Drinks to be FinedIn a recent move, the Health Department of New York City is gearing up to intensify its crusade against the kind pen mist food outlets selling food products and drinks laced with cannabidiol (CBD) by not only fining them but also the companies which continue to offer the said compound.
The department has decided to issue infractions to food outlets starting October 1, 2019, for selling food products or drinks with traces of CBD. The regulators communicated this in an email addressed to local restaurant owners in New York City. According to the email, apart from being fined, violating this particular rule may even impact a restaurant’s letter grade.
Of late, cafes, bars, and restaurants in New York City have been rampantly selling CBD-laced beverages like coffee, cocktails, and food products. Extracted from either the cannabis or the hemp plant, the compound offers the soothing benefits of marijuana sans the psychoactive kick caused by the other active compound of marijuana, delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Quoting safety concerns, the regulators have started coming down heavily on the eateries in the city. The health department prohibited a lot of business establishments like restaurants, cafes, and other food outlets earlier in January 2019, from adding the cannabis compound to food products and drinks. The health department then inspected some of the restaurants and instructed them to refrain from using the products, wherever found. It however, did not give them any instructions to either destroy or discard the products.
Continuing this crusade, from July 1, 2019 the regulators are going to ask the food outlets to return the products to the supplier or discard them. This crackdown is likely to paralyze or slow down the fast-growing industry in the city.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it is illegal to add CBD to any food items or drinks. The FDA is presently in the process of informing local businesses about this regulation in New York City. The department has also offered a learning period for the local businesses in order to be compliant with the regulations.
Post the implementation of the $867 billion farm bill by the American President, Donald Trump, most CBD, derived from hemp, was legalized in December 2018. With this, industrial hemp was removed from the government’s list of banned substances and made a legally approved agricultural commodity. The FDA will hold the first public hearing in April 2019 to initiate the process of making the required laws to regulate the manufacturing, distribution and regulation of the newly legalized CBD compound.