CBD marketer goes for functional food positioning

The company, Phivida, is based in British Columbia and has been selling imported hemp oil extract on a wholesale basis for several years.  Now the company is branching out with a line of hemp oil infused juices, tinctures and vitamin shots.

John David, president of Phivida, said the company’s products are imported as a food from a European supplier.  In working with copackers in the United States, including one in Colorado,  David said the company gave careful thought to how the products should be positioned, given the sensitive nature of the regulatory picture.

“We don’t make claims about the function or efficacy of CBD because unfortunately that’s been an issue with the FDA’s stance on GW Pharmaceuticals and their IND.  Fortunately we came into the marketplace when these issues were very apparent,” ​David told NutraIngredients-USA.

“We are a functional food product company. We have partnered with the largest certified organic industrial hemp farm in the EU. We import a food that is legal to sell in all 50 states,” ​he said.

Nano encapsulation​

With that being said,  David did say that the supercritical CO2 extract his company uses for its products has some distinct benefits.  It features a technology that will boost the claims of bioavailability of CBD, enabling this expensive ingredient to be effective at smaller doses.

“We nano encapsulate the oil which increases the speed at which it is taken up into the body and increase the length of time in which it stays in the body by about 400%,”​ he said.

David also said the company intends to differentiate itself with the quality of its products. The company’s point of view is that the unsettled regulatory picture has given rise to a range of quick-hit, fly-by-night marketers whose quality can sometimes be suspect. David said Phivida intends to remain the highest level of compliance with the appropriate regulations, including packing the products in GMP compliant facilities and using certified raw material. 

The company intends to pursue a “four channel” distribution strategy, David said.  That includes health practitioners, online sales, natural and specialty food retailers and dispensaries in those states that have medical marijuana laws. 

“In the dispensaries the products will be labeled with special labels that are specific to the regulations in each state,”​ he said.