Appeals court hands hemp company a victory in Polish ‘novel food’ battle

A Polish appeals court has accepted arguments that hemp was consumed before 1997, making it non-novel and leading the court to overturn a decision by the country’s Chief Sanitary Inspectorate (GIS), which had been supported by a lower court.

The Voivodship Administrative Court in Warsaw (WSA) overturned on appeal a GIS order to withdraw capsules containing hemp plant tops from the Polish market on the grounds that they were novel food. It has sent the case back to the lower court that made the initial ruling upholding the novel food decision. That court’s future ruling could again be subject to an appeal by either the hemp company, Kombinat Konopny, or the GIS.