CBD Compliance Tips

CBD Compliance Tips — Why is compliance important? Over the last several years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued many warning letters to major CBD brands. In the last two years alone, the FDA has sent letters to over 40 CBD brands, some of which include major household names such as Koi CBD and Curaleaf.

It’s no question that as the industry grows, more regulations will be put into place, and the FDA will be cracking down even harder on brands that don’t follow proper protocol.

So what’s the best way to ensure that your CBD brand doesn’t run into trouble with the FDA in the future? Here are three CBD compliance tips you should consider:

Please more: this is not legal advice, consult a legal professional to ensure that your business is compliant.

Product Labels

One of the most important CBD compliance tips is to ensure proper labeling. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for brands to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on products and labels, only to find out that the labels were non-compliant. Mistakes like these can potentially end your business, so here are a few things to look out for when creating your labels:

FDA DISCLAIMER

For all ingestible products, it’s vital to put the standard FDA Disclaimer on your labels. The disclaimer goes along the lines of: “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”

DIETARY SUPPLEMENT

As the classification of hemp-derived products is still in a grey area, it’s safest to market your product as a supplement – and follow within the guidelines that the FDA proposes for supplements. It’s important to put the words either “dietary” or “herbal” supplement on the front of the label.

FOLLOW FDA GUIDELINES

The guidelines that the FDA has placed for supplements can be found under the CFR – Code of Federal Regulations Title 21. Feel free to click this link to navigate to the FDA’s website to learn more about necessary regulations.

Website

The second most important aspect of CBD compliance is your CBD brand’s website. It is crucial that all web copy remains compliance and free from medical claims. Both the FDA and payment processors regularly scan websites to ensure that copy is not misleading, and will punish brands that don’t meet their standards.

FDA DISCLAIMER

Similar to product labels, your website must contain the FDA disclaimer as well on every page. We recommend placing the disclaimer in the footer section of your website.

NO HEALTH CLAIMS

Don’t make any health claims regarding disease. It’s particularly important not to mention any names of diseases or even symptoms of diseases. This may require some clever wording, but it’s totally possible to keep your web copy compliant without compromising your information library.

Marketing

The final area where compliance matters is in your marketing efforts. Any and all advertising that you do must be just as compliant as your website or product labels. Although you don’t necessarily have to put the FDA disclaimer in your ad, it’s still wise to be cautious.

INFLUENCERS/AFFILIATES

Your CBD marketing strategy includes affiliates and influencers representing your brand. As such, you must monitor what they say about your product and how they say it. Importantly, if you share a video of an influencer making a health claim, it essentially means you’re making the claim.

This goes for reviews by customers as well, you can only use reviews that are compliant.

Final thoughts on CBD Compliance Tips

CBD is a unique industry full of potential and pitfalls. Use these tips to ensure CBD business compliance and contact us to keep your shelves stocked with premium CBD products. View our catalog now or contact us to learn more.

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