BY: REBECCA RIVAS
Missouri Independent
Flora Farms took more than 3,000 Zen-brand cannabis gummy products off the shelves last month, after state regulators received a complaint the food-coloring ingredient wasn’t listed on the label.
The food coloring is not a banned ingredient, said Sami Jo Freeman, spokeswoman for the Division of Cannabis Regulation, and the Flora Farms manufacturing facility in Springfield that’s the target of the product recall doesn’t have to stop using it.
“Food coloring must be disclosed in the ingredient list in order to be used in a product,” she said. “This helps consumers know that if they have an allergy to it, that they should not consume that product.”
Only one adverse reaction was reported, she said. The consumer reported the reaction did not require hospitalization, but Freeman said she could not provide the consumer complaint to protect the person’s privacy.
The problem wasn’t caught during the extensive review process required under the new recreational marijuana rules.
As of Sept. 1, marijuana manufacturers must now package and label all products in division-approved designs before sending them to a dispensary.
But catching this type of error is not what the pre-approval process was intended for, Freeman said.
“Verification of whether information is accurate occurs through other processes, such as inspections, complaints and investigations,” Freeman said.
The review process for packaging and labeling, she said, is to ensure that all types of required information are included on the package.
And it’s also to make sure the numerous prohibited things – such as excessive colors, depictions of candy or cartoon characters – stay off.
When voters passed the constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana in 2022, it included a provision that labels and packaging for marijuana-related products, “shall not be made to be attractive to children.”
Missouri is now a testing ground to see if plain packaging for recreational marijuana will meet this constitutional mandate. Under new state rules, packaging can only be one primary color, and it can have up to two logos or symbols that can be a different color or several different colors.
Mark Hendren, president of Flora Farms cannabis company, said the facility has addressed the labeling issue.
“DCR requested that Zen labels more specifically identify the food coloring used,” he said. “So that’s what we have done.”