19 August 2022 – During a webinar hosted a few weeks ago by the National Industrial Hemp Council of America (NIHC) and the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), the sentiment that was shared was that more resources, and coordination of hemp feed research would help speed up the FDA approval process for hemp ingredients in animal feed; the issue being that cannabinoids must be confirmed to not be a threat to toxicology.
“What we need to understand is that any new ingredient is safe for these target animals and results in maintenance of a safe human food supply,” said Charlotte Conway, deputy director at the FDA, adding that each species of animal requires a separate approval.
The regulatory costs, however, are significant, especially with multiple hemp-based ingredients (hemp seeds, oil, meal, hay, forage, and co-products, such as hulls) which have different nutritional values. Panel researchers also pointed out that to gain FDA approval, it remains costly to produce the research showing both how a feed ingredient affects animal health and how it might affect humans who consume the animals (after withdrawal periods). Regulators also acknowledge that the process to approve new feed ingredients is slow.
“I know that people think that it’s taking a long time to get these products to market,” said Leah Wilkinson of the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA). “It usually takes three to five years at least” to get a product through CVM review, but AAFCO and the FDA are responding quicker than usual for hemp ingredients, she added. “The fact that the hemp industry is getting responses back from CVM in six months is really fast.”
Wilkinson pointed out that legislators in some states such as Montana, Oklahoma and others have made moves to approve hemp in animal feed state-wide. However, hemp manufacturers must have federal approval for each ingredient for each species, to follow the Food Safety Modernization Act.
Finally, well aware that unregulated cannabinoids have already been introduced into the animal feed supply, the webinar panellists highlighted the risk of micro-amounts of residue of cannabinoid CBD and THC in feed via hemp, which is considered a contaminant.
