In a bid to make consumers more at ease with their products, over 20 Dutch CBD businesses are now self certifying their products and sharing the lab results with consumers. The companies are looking to make their supply chains more transparent and thus more accountable as the future of CBD in the EU becomes uncertain.
CanCheck.org was launched by the Cannabinoid Association of the Netherlands (CAN) as European officials continue to debate over how CBD should be regulated. The 29 members of CAN launched the site, which allows consumers to search the manufacturing and testing history of products that have CAN’s seal of approval. Blockchain technology is being used by the platform to track batches, certification, and auditing.
Getting a CAN seal means that the product has passed an audit of the ingredients, CBD levels, batch codes, testing requirements, and sourcing requirements. CAN sees transparency as the only way to ensure that quality products are what make it to the shelves for consumers.
Under the current law, CBD has to be assessed by authorities before any products can be placed on the market. However, enforcement of these rules is left up to the nation that it takes place in. The result is a scattered array of enforcement policies that vary from nation to nation, similar to the patchwork cobbled together in the U.S.
The EU is also deciding on how to classify CBD, with the European Commission stating that it is leaning towards seeing CBD and all cannabinoids as narcotics under U.N. conventions and not as food. That would mean CBD is not seen as food and any push to get CBD a novel food designation would be put on hold.
