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Hemp Oil & Seeds

hemp seeds

As a follow-up to my previous post, What About CBD Oil?, I have been asked about the status of hemp oil and seeds.

The FDA has approved hemp seed oil, hemp seed protein powder and hulled hemp seed as GRAS (generally recognized as safe) for use in food products.

There should be no problem using them in any cosmetic product as well.

The FDA press release about it has more details and links to the actual approval letters.

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Comments

  1. Dina

    Can we use hemp oil for shampoo bar

    Reply
    1. Marie Gale

      Hemp oil is considered generally regarded as safe and is not regulated. It can be used in a cosmetic product (including a shampoo bar).

      Reply
  2. Cara

    I have been informed by many that most payment processors (Square, ect…) will not allow sales of any cbd or even hemp oil products in skincare. I only plan to usr hemp oil to start, but this could be troublesome. Are there any changes coming on that front?

    Reply
    1. Marie Gale

      I did some checking with several of the major processors and found that CBD is generally still disallowed and sales of products containing CBD are likely to get your account canceled. Even with the changes from the new farm bill.

      Hemp oil has never been illegal and is considered by the FDA to be “generally regarded as safe” (GRAS), but I don’t think that the processors can easily recognize the difference between hemp oil, CBD, and “get high” products containing THC. The issue is actually the banking institutions behind the merchant services. They are probably going to take a while to get their ducks in a row and set up specific criteria, especially since the laws vary in different states.

      At this point, it’s a gamble if you want to use a credit card processor and have the term “hemp oil” on your website describing your product(s). You might get away with it, and you might not. Also keep in mind that the same standards could be applied by your BANK. There are instances of bank accounts being closed because the account holder was selling CBD oil.

      I did see ONE reference to PayPal, where a person said that PayPal suspended their account for selling “illegal” products, but when they clarified that they were using ingredients legal in their state, their account was reinstated. I have no idea if that was a fluke situation or if that’s PayPal’s policy in general.

      Reply
  3. Gwendolyn Webster

    Thank you, Marie 🙂 I always appreciate your updates and keeping us informed!

    Reply

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