Finally, hemp seed gets food nod

TASMANIAN growers have welcomed hemp seed finally being cleared as a food product for human consumption in Australia.

Industrial Hemp Association of Tasmania president and farmer Tim Schmidt said farmers were ready to go.

“Hemp seed contains omegas 3 and 6 in the right balance for human uptake and it’s high in protein and essential fatty acids,” he said.

Tasmania is the largest grower of industrial hemp for seed in Australia.

In Adelaide yesterday, the Health Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation endorsed the recent Food Standards Australia New Zealand recommendation to allow low-THC hemp to be legally designated as a food, matching the situation in other countries.

State Primary Industries Minister Jeremy Rockliff and Health Minister Michael Ferguson said Tasmania had led the charge on this issue including obtaining a ministers’ agreement to undertake a scientific human consumption trial to satisfy concerns about police roadside drug testing — ensuring that marketing of hemp for food cannot be linked to illicit drugs — and a concerted lobbying effort of health, agriculture and police ministers.

Mr Rockliff said allowing the use of low-THC hemp in food products had the potential to boost overall production and open new markets for the agriculture sector.

“We now have nothing standing in our way,” he said.

There are no cannabinoids in hemp seeds and no risk of a psychoactive reaction when consuming them.

Mr Schmidt said the united position in the Tasmanian Parliament and the persistence of the State Government had kept the hemp issue on the national agenda.

“Processing of the seed into oil is readily achievable, so the crop can return an immediate income,” he said.