CBD … It’s what’s for dinner. Or coffee. Or a snack

Spoorthi Kumar serves up a cannabidiol-spiked lavendar chai latte to a customer at Hidden Grounds in New Brunswick as Elissa Cuellar whips up a CBD-laced buddha bowl for a customer at her holistic café Planted Eats in Wayne. Less than 30 miles away, servers in New York are prohibited from doing the same, at penalty of fines between $200 and $650 as soon as October.

That’s because New York City banned the use of CBD in food and drink, effective July 1, to align with the lack of U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation on or approval of CBD as a food additive.

CBD is approved for only one use by the FDA: a drug to treat a rare form of epilepsy. But due in part to the legalization of hemp in the 2018 Farm Bill and a new abundance of available hemp-derived CBD oil, it’s now become what three out of four chefs surveyed by the National Restaurant Association last year saw as one of the hottest trends for 2019.

“We study the trends of the industry and was curious about the rise in adaptogens in drinks. This was becoming a huge statement in the west and CBD in particular was becoming popular for its natural benefits of relieving pain and stress,” Kumar said of what sparked the use of CBD at Hidden Grounds. “Not only does [CBD] add well you have to make sure it tastes great as well. We found the use of CBD oil as a great soluble with our coffees and chais and decided to become creative with our drinks.”

Now, CBD beverages make up 12 percent of Hidden Grounds’ overall sales.

The FDA is aware of the trend as well. In a notice put out in July, it recognized the growing number of CBD products on the market. The agency also noted some caveats about the product.

“[T]here is very limited available information about CBD, including about its effects on the body,” it said. “The FDA is working to learn more about the safety of CBD and CBD products.”

Regulators want to learn more about the potential for liver toxicity from prolonged ingestion, the effects of cumulative exposure, how it affects special populations and how it affects animals. It has also tested various CBD-infused products and found that they weren’t at cannabinoid levels advertised on the packaging, and received reports of some CBD potentially containing pesticides and heavy metals, according to the notice.

‘Hard to know’

So should restaurateurs and retailers tread carefully—or not at all—in the CBD foods market?

“If you’re going to be using CBD in food, I think there’s certainly risk involved. But some people feel it’s worth the risk,” said Andrew Linden, co-chair of the cannabis law group at Norris McLaughlin PA in Bridgewater. “The question is really, what exactly are you getting? How do you really know? You don’t know where everyone’s sourcing it from. What they say products contain is not always accurate. That’s not to say the retailer’s at fault, but because it’s so unregulated right now, it’s hard to know what exactly you’re getting with CBD.”

Having a direct connection to a hemp farm takes the guesswork out of sourcing. Both Kumar and Cuellar source CBD from USDA-certified farms in Colorado, which established its industrial hemp program in 2012 and grew 21,578 acres of hemp last year, according to VoteHemp.

You don’t know where everyone’s sourcing it from. What they say products contain is not always accurate. That’s not to say the retailer’s at fault, but because it’s so unregulated right now, it’s hard to know what exactly you’re getting with CBD.

– Andrew Linden, co-chair of the cannabis law group at Norris McLaughlin PA

The FDA is currently accepting information and comments on a public docket in an effort to gather information on CBD. As of July 25, 4,492 comments had been received.

Until further regulation, New Jersey eateries that serve CBD-infused food have the go-ahead as long as their products don’t cross state lines. Jeff Brown, the assistant commissioner of the Department of Health’s Medical Marijuana Program, said that doesn’t mean the agency, which also oversees food safety in the state, endorses the use of it.

“It’s important to note that the question is, ‘is it legal to add to food or not?’ We would maybe disapprove of drinks with high sugar content but they’re legal. Same thing here,” Brown said. “Maybe we wouldn’t advise consumers to just go hog wild to get food with CBD, but at the same time, there isn’t a New Jersey-specific law banning CBD in food. Therefore, retail firms are legally permitted to add CBD to food if it’s labeled as such and sold in New Jersey.”