CBD in Food: EFSA Backs 2 mg a Day as the UK Moves Toward 10 mg

On September 18, 2026, the European Food Safety Authority concluded that a synthetic cannabidiol (CBD) food supplement is safe at up to 2 mg a day for adults over 25. In the UK, a Food Standards Agency board paper this month recommends that ministers authorise three CBD novel foods at up to 10 mg a day, with warnings on the pack.

Key Takeaways

• EFSA concluded on September 18, 2026, that synthetic CBD dissolved in MCT oil is safe at up to 2 mg a day for adults over 25 (excluding pregnant and breastfeeding women); the liver was the key target organ in the animal study.
• The UK Food Standards Agency recommended in a September 2026 board paper that ministers authorise three 98 percent pure CBD novel foods up to 10 mg per day with strict warning labels.
• Neither authority has formally granted legal novel food market authorisation; these releases represent scientific opinions and policy advice for statutory instruments.
• EFSA says safety could not be established for people taking medication, and the FSA would require a warning for people taking medication.

What happened

On September 18, 2026, the European Food Safety Authority published a landmark scientific opinion titled "Safety of synthetic cannabidiol as a novel food pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283". The opinion builds on EFSA's February 2026 statement on a provisional safe level for cannabidiol as a novel food. The evaluation assessed a chemically synthesized cannabidiol ingredient with a purity of at least 98 percent dissolved in medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil. EFSA concluded that it is safe under the proposed conditions of use, in food supplements at up to 2 mg a day for adults over 25, excluding pregnant and breastfeeding women, except for people taking medication, for whom safety could not be established.

Three days later, on September 21, 2026, EFSA published two companion scientific opinions evaluating non-synthetic submissions: a CBD isolate proposed at up to 60 mg a day and a Cannabis sativa extract (57 to 65 percent CBD) proposed at up to 30 mg a day. In both cases EFSA said safety could not be established because the applicants did not supply the data it requested.

Meanwhile, the UK Food Standards Agency issued a September 2026 board paper detailing its advice to ministers in England and Wales to grant statutory novel food authorisations to three high-purity CBD applications (each demonstrating at least 98 percent purity) for adults at up to 10 mg a day. The board paper says about 3,000 CBD products on the FSA's public list are linked to these three applications.

What changed

The two regulators land five-fold apart. In this opinion EFSA derived a safe intake of 0.026 mg per kilogram of body weight per day, which corresponds to roughly 2 mg per day for an average 70 kg adult. To reach this benchmark, EFSA analyzed a 90-day subchronic toxicity study in rodents, found the liver was the key target organ (female rats were more sensitive), and applied an uncertainty factor of 400.

Conversely, the UK FSA recommended a provisional acceptable daily intake of 10 mg per day for healthy adults. The FSA's public consultation on the three applications ran for 12 weeks from August 28, 2025 and drew 46 responses. The gap reflects different data packages and safety margins; the UK pairs its 10 mg figure with mandatory warnings on the label.

Crucially, EFSA stated explicitly that safety could not be established for individuals taking prescription medication. The UK proposal likewise requires a warning for people taking medication. For wider differences between UK and EU food rules, see UK-EU Food Deal Would Swap British Approvals for EU Rules

Who is affected?

The scope of these regulatory opinions is intentionally narrow, excluding broad categories of consumers from the safe intake window. EFSA restricted its safety conclusion strictly to healthy adults aged 25 and older. The target group excludes people under 25 and pregnant or breastfeeding women, and EFSA says safety could not be established for people taking medication.

The UK FSA recommendation also excludes vulnerable groups. Under the proposed UK rules, authorized products must bear clear warning statements that the product is not intended for people under 18 years of age, individuals who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or trying to conceive, or people who are immunosuppressed or taking medication. If ministers adopt the FSA advice, around 3,000 products sold across England and Wales that rely on the three candidate dossier formulations would need labels showing the 10 mg daily limit and the warnings.

Food and supplement manufacturers are directly impacted. If the Commission follows EFSA, companies hoping to sell CBD food supplements in the EU would face a 2 mg daily limit for this synthetic ingredient; applicants seeking higher doses would need stronger data.

What it means for shoppers?

Shoppers evaluating packaged supplements or functional foods must read packaging labels with greater scrutiny. Check the CBD dose per day on any product you buy and compare it with these figures.

When checking a label, shoppers should look for several key details:

• Cannabidiol per daily serving: Compare the listed milligrams per day against the 2 mg EFSA benchmark and the 10 mg UK FSA threshold.
• Ingredient form: Check whether the source is listed as synthetic CBD or a CBD isolate (both chemically purified to at least 98 percent) versus an unpurified Cannabis sativa extract, for which EFSA found safety could not be established.
• Carrier oils: EFSA verified safety specifically for synthetic CBD dissolved in MCT oil; other carriers have not been assessed under this opinion.
• Sensitive-population warnings: Look for mandatory statements warning against use by minors, pregnant or nursing individuals, and people taking prescription drugs.

Evidence limitations remain substantial. Neither scientific panel could determine safe intake levels for people taking prescription medications, nor have long-term human clinical studies established lifetime consumption risks. The CBD content per daily dose should be stated on the pack.

The background

Under European Union Regulation (EU) 2015/2283, any food or food ingredient that was not consumed to a significant degree by humans in the EU before May 15, 1997, is classified as a "novel food". Novel foods must undergo a rigorous pre-market safety evaluation by EFSA before the European Commission and member states can grant market authorization. Following the UK departure from the EU, the Food Standards Agency established an independent novel food authorization regime while maintaining similar underlying safety principles.

For years, commercial CBD products proliferated on store shelves across both jurisdictions ahead of completed safety dossiers. Regulators eventually demanded formal novel food applications from manufacturers wishing to keep their products on the market. In the UK, the FSA created a public list of products that were allowed to remain on sale while their dossiers were evaluated.

The opinions published on September 18 and September 21, 2026, represent EFSA delivering its verdict on long-pending applications. EFSA found that the two higher-dose applications (30 mg and 60 mg) lacked the data needed, while the synthetic form was judged safe at 2 mg a day. Meanwhile, the UK FSA September 2026 board paper set the stage for formal domestic regulation at a higher 10 mg ceiling.

What to watch next?

Neither the EFSA scientific opinion nor the FSA board paper constitutes final law. In the European Union, EFSA opinions serve purely as scientific advice. The European Commission and representatives from EU member states in the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed must now decide whether to draft an implementing regulation authorizing synthetic CBD at 2 mg per day. Commercial CBD food products remain unauthorized in the European Union.

In the United Kingdom, government ministers in England and Wales must decide whether to accept the FSA recommendation and formally lay statutory instruments authorising the three applications at 10 mg per day. If approved, manufacturers linked to those applications will have to update product packaging to state the provisional acceptable daily intake of 10 mg and display the required warnings for medication users, under-18s, and pregnant or nursing mothers.

Understanding complex packaging claims and daily serving limits can be difficult when shopping for dietary supplements. If you want a clear breakdown of what is on your packaging, you can check ingredients individually using the Aurascan app. Aurascan is a free food-label scanner app currently in beta (available on iOS TestFlight, with a waitlist for other platforms). Rather than assigning a black-box score, Aurascan explains each ingredient with cited evidence, using product data from Open Food Facts, USDA and barcode databases, with citations checked by an automated verifier. Scan your next supplement label to see what is in it.