Ep. 224: Food Allergens Hidden in Cannabis-Containing Products

This podcast is for adult listeners since our topic explores hidden food allergens in Cannabis products. We’re sitting down with Steven Gendel, PhD, principal and consultant for Gendel Food Safety, to explore the intersection of food allergies and edible cannabis products - and how listeners can better understand how to determine if a product contains their allergen and what to look for.

Resources to keep you in the know:

• Gendel Food Safety LLC
• Steven Gendel - Linkedin

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Transcript

Caroline: Welcome to FAACT's Roundtable, a podcast dedicated to navigating life with food allergies across the lifespan. Presented in a welcoming format with interviews and open discussions, each episode will explore a specific topic, leaving you with the FAACTS to know or use.

Information presented via this podcast is educational and not intended to provide individual medical advice. Please consult with your personal board certified allergist or healthcare providers for advice specific to your situation.

Hi everyone, I'm Caroline Moasessi and I am your host for the FAACT Roundtable podcast. I am a food allergy parent and advocate and the founder of the Grateful Foodie Blog.

And I am FAACTS Vice President of Community Relations.

This podcast is for adult listeners since our topic explores hidden food allergens in cannabis products. We're sitting down with Stephen Gendel, Ph.D. principal and consultant for Gendel Food Safety, to explore the intersection of food allergies and edible cannabis products and how listeners can better understand how to determine if a product contains their allergen and what to look for.

Welcome, Dr. Gendel, to FAACT's Roundtable Podcast. We're absolutely delighted you are here with us today. You spoke at our FAACT Influencer Summit back in November and it was such a hit.

So we're so excited to have you with us today.

Steven Gendel: I'm glad to be here. I had a good time at the summit and I think the message is one that needs to be spread around more.

Caroline: It does, and so we're gonna just jump right in. And before we get started though, can you briefly just share your background as this safety expert and just all of this amazing background that you have.

Steven Gendel: So I have been working in the food safety area for 30 years now, I guess a little more than 30 years. And the most interesting part of that, well, not the most interesting, but the most relevant part, I suppose, is that I had 25 years at the FDA in the food safety program there when I did a lot of different things.

But one thread that worked all the way through that was working on various food allergen issues. At the end of my time there, I was the agency's first food allergen coordinator where I worked on allergen safety, allergen labeling, allergen detection, control and manufacturing and all those kinds of issues.

And then since then I've been working as an independent consultant to try to help companies and individuals be safe and understand what the needs of the allergen consumer are.

Caroline: And then that brings you to our subject today.

So to get us started, let's just focus on the basics and basically what is the proper definition of cannabis. And then what are edible products?

Steven Gendel: So this is one of those questions that seems simple on the surface, but the answer is really depends upon where you are in the world and who you ask.

So, fundamentally, cannabis generally means the plant cannabis sativa, which is also known as marijuana.

In 2018, I believe it is, Congress decided to legalize the growing of hemp because that seemed like a good opportunity for a lot of farmers to have an additional market for products.

But when they did that, they created a definition which said that plants that contain low levels of THC would be called hemp, and those that had higher levels would be called cannabis.

So anything with a THC level above the cutoff that Congress defined as cannabis, if it's derived from the cannabis sativa plant. So there's a difference between the legal term of art and the common terms that people use.

An edible. Edibles are things like candies, baked goods, chewables, or drinks that contain either a cannabis or a hemp ingredient, like CBD or thc. But the production and labeling of those products are regulated by individual states.

Caroline: So they don't fall under an FDA jurisdiction.

Steven Gendel: That's correct. The FDA has made it clear that any product that contains CBD or thc, those are things, are not allowed or not approved additives in foods. That creates a lot of confusion, because technically, hemp products are okay at the federal level because of what Congress said, But there are different kinds of hemp products.

So, for instance, if you use hemp fibers in a fabric, that's okay, but when you start to use it in a food, then it falls under FDA jurisdiction. And they've said that's not an approved additive.

So that's where it gets confusing. That's one of the ways it gets confused.

Caroline: Okay, we need this clarity. So now, why is it so difficult to find allergens and edibles? You've kind of led us into that, but let's go deep into that now.

Steven Gendel: Okay, so if you think about what an edible is, the edibles you think of a cookie or a brownie are products that are like 99.99% the same as a traditional food.

You know, brownie is just like you might get on a shelf at the grocery store or you might make at home. It's just that in this case, they have this tiny extra drop of a special ingredient, whether that's CBD or thc, that separates it from your normal traditional foods.

Ideally, allergic consumers using edibles would be protected by the same rules that apply to the traditional versions of the same foods.

However, because FDA doesn't allow these to be used in the products they regulate. And because things with THC and things with high THC levels remain illegal at the federal level, allergen related manufacturing and labeling requirements are set by each state independently.

And that creates a problem because the laws vary tremendously from one state to the other.

And many states don't even address allergens or allergen labeling. And the ones that do address it vary in whether they do a good job or not.

And even on top of that, state regulators generally don't come with a background that makes them familiar with food and food products.

So they're not concerned with or knowledgeable about allergen issues, allergen labeling, and they don't have the training and resources needed to do a good job with this.

Caroline: That was my question there. So when you were saying state regulators, that doesn't necessarily mean food safety regulators, right?

Steven Gendel: Absolutely correct. Different states have different ways of doing this regulation.

Many of them regulate it like they might alcohol products, where they're more interested in the taxes from the products. Many of them have regulators who have come from the previous world of controlling illegal substances where it's just simply a matter of if it's present, it's illegal.

And now they're trying to regulate the industry. So they really don't understand. Some do, but that's a very small minority that really understands that these things are foods. And what food safety and particularly allergen.

Caroline: Safety means, that is a problem.

So now if someone was to walk into a dispensary and they see an edible product, can it just not even have an ingredient label on it? Is that like, acceptable?

Or could they ask the dispensary about that product?

Steven Gendel: So depends upon what state you're buying it in.

Some states have pretty explicit labeling regulations, many do not. The other issue, and again, this is going to vary from state to state, is whether the dispensary has any relationship to the company that actually makes the product.

So in some states they're required to be one entity, legal entity. In other states they're not.

So the people in the dispensary, besides the fact that they may not have any idea what you're talking about, they may not know anything about the company that made the product and what they do.

It gets really, really complicated. And it really is very much dependent on where you are and what the.

Caroline: Local authorities do, this is much more complicated. And so now for our listeners, what step should a listener take if they're going to consume cannabis products while managing their food? Allergies so what would you suggest someone do if they say, okay, I wanna have some beverages with cannabis in it or I wanna get some products, what do you suggest they should do?

Steven Gendel: So that is the big question.

The 600 pound gorilla on the table. I wish I could give you a really straightforward answer to that and one that would help people more than I can use a technical term here.

The situation is a ****** mess and consumers are facing unnecessary risks.

So the best that I could suggest in the short term is that your listeners research the companies that make the products available in their states. And I emphasize make, not sell because as I say, the people in the dispensary may or may not be connected with the people who make the products.

If you can check the labels of the products online and compare those with the labels that you actually see in the dispensary to see if they're consistent with each other and if they make sense.

So most people probably have a pretty good idea of what goes into making a brownie or a chocolate chip cookie. If you look at the label and you look at an ingredient list, if they have one, and you see that doesn't make sense compared to what I would expect in a brownie, that should be a red flag.

The other thing is this is one of these cases where a community support is probably going to be very important. So, you know, the people in the food allergy community really need to communicate with each other about their experiences.

And yeah, I tried this brand and it was okay. Or you know, I know somebody who tried that and it wasn't until things get straightened out, that's about the best you can do.

However, I do want to say in the long run, so this is not going to help you tomorrow, but in the long run, I think it's really important that the people who are concerned about this become activists.

Work with the legislatures and the regulators in the states where you live to make sure that these people are aware of the problem. I think in a lot of cases they just simply aren't even aware of it.

That's why there's holes. They didn't think to do anything about it. So work with them, make them aware of the problems and work with them to suggest fixes things that they can do to help you as a consumer and the consumer community to do a good job.

Caroline: I'm so glad you brought that up because I was gonna ask, like, can a person research their own state? And if they were to research their own state, how do they go about that?

Do they look to the Department of Health. Would they just reach out to their legislature? Like, where do they begin? One to just learn about, like the state's rules and regulations and then I guess too, like you said, become active and I guess go meet with your representative and start talking about this.

Steven Gendel: Yeah. So this is another place where this is a mess. Different states have created different structures for these products. Some states, they are completely independent. Some states they're part of a health department or part of an agriculture department.

There are some states I've run across where the rules regulate cannabis products as if they were with the same laws they use for restaurants or grocery stores.

So every state should have someplace online where their laws and regulations are available to the public.

And just start digging through your state's government websites until you find the right place. But also, as you mentioned, figure out who your representative is or representatives are in the state legislature, you know, whether they have a house or senate or however they work, and go to their office, talk to their staff, talk to those people.

They might have an office in your district, but that's the place, that's the place to start. Look at what your state does, find the holes in that, and then go to your legislature and point that out.

If people need help finding what's in their legislature, I can certainly try to help. There are other resources online, but again, if you really want to solve the problem for the long run, that's what we're going to have to do.

Caroline: Thank you so much. And for listeners, I'll have Dr. Gendel's contact information in the show notes so you can follow back up with him. And honestly, that is such a great recommendation, you know, as a person who, you know, personally advocated for different laws in my state, you know, just reach out to your legislature and to your representative.

Your representatives are there to represent the people and so they really will listen. Or you can reach out to them and ask the staff to help you to find the right thing.

But that's so excellent. I mean, this sounds like you said, you know, it's kind of a little crazy, but it's actually to me, almost a little cutting edge. And right at the beginning where I think a lot of influence could be put back out there.

Steven Gendel: Yeah. And I should say that the legislators who supported legalization of these products in your particular state, you should always start with them and always start with a thank you, that you appreciate what they've done.

And then from there ask, you know, here's an issue that needs improving.

That's a really good way to go about working with them.

Caroline: That's a brilliant and excellent point.

So this has been so important, this conversation, and you just bringing this up and bringing this to light and bringing it so succinctly and actionable and very understandable. It's just been so incredible.

So before we wrap up, is there anything else you want our listeners to hear from you?

Steven Gendel: So the one thing I guess I'd like to say is if anyone out there listening actually makes or sells edibles, remember that your customers are relying on you to do the right thing.

And if you're not sure how to do it or what it is, please reach out to me or somebody else like me, because we're out here to help you and to help the consumer to be able to safely consume these products.

Caroline: Absolutely brilliant and stunning advice. Thank you so much for your time. I know you're really busy, but I really appreciate, in fact, really appreciates the work that doing and you sharing your time with us and educating us and showing us the path to what we can do.

So thank you so much for today.

Steven Gendel: Oh, I appreciate the opportunity. As I say, this is something I'm pretty, I guess you say passionate about and I think it's the more that people hear about it, the more opportunity there is for us to make changes.

Caroline: To get it right and to keep everybody safe. So thank you again.

Thank you for listening to FAACT's Roundtable podcast. Stay tuned for future episodes coming soon. Please subscribe, leave a review and listen to our podcast on Pandora, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio and Stitcher.

Have a great day and always, always be kind to one another.