Gluten doesn’t have the most outstanding reputation amongst nutritionists. Although there’s still debate over how much gluten impacts long-term health, more people seem to be developing allergies to this wheat compound. Data from Cleveland Clinic suggest about six percent of Americans are “gluten intolerant,” while one percent suffer from the more severe Celiac disease.
Whatever your opinion on the gluten debate, it’s clear more customers are interested in living a gluten-free lifestyle. To help accommodate people on a gluten-free diet, food and supplement manufacturers are creating novel products without gluten.
However, CBD shoppers may have noticed many hemp extracts don’t contain labels that clearly state they’re “gluten-free.” Does this mean hemp plants have gluten compounds, or does CBD oil naturally have zero traces of gluten?
Do Hemp CBD Extracts Fit The Gluten-Free Category?
Unlike wheat, CBD hemp flowers don’t naturally produce gluten. So, as long as extractors don’t add gluten-containing ingredients during the extraction process, every CBD oil should be gluten-free.
However, the Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO) can’t stamp an official approval on every CBD product yet. Please remember the FDA has yet to approve CBD in edibles. Without clear guidance from the FDA, the GFCO is holding off on testing food-grade CBD products.
Instead, the GFCO only certifies CBD topicals as these are intended for external use. Even though CBD lotions seem to impact joints thanks to the skin’s cannabinoid receptors, but they can’t penetrate the blood-brain barrier. Therefore, organizations like the GFCO feel more comfortable reviewing these items.
Until the FDA releases clear guidance on the manufacture of CBD edibles, the GFCO probably won’t evaluate these products. In the meantime, companies need to send their CBD products for third-party reviews to scan for secondary ingredients like mold, pesticides, and gluten.
How Could Customers Tell If Their CBD Is Gluten-Free?
As we just hinted, customers need to request third-party lab tests to see if there’s gluten in their CBD products. These tests should reveal the concentrations of all the secondary ingredients in a CBD extract. If you see anything suspicious in these reports, you should contact the manufacturer directly and ask a few questions.
Please also don’t forget to see what accreditations your CBD brand holds. Typically, vegan-friendly or USDA organic brands have a higher trustworthiness score and a lower risk of gluten.
But it’s not just the ingredients that go into a CBD oil that could cause trouble for gluten-sensitive customers. Please remember that some hemp extracts are made in factories that process gluten-containing products. There’s a possibility airborne gluten in these facilities could leach into CBD products.
To maximize the odds of zero gluten in your CBD oils, you must work with a company that produces quality third-party lab results and uses a factory without gluten exposure.
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Although it’s getting easier for gluten intolerance patients to meet their dietary restrictions, it’s still challenging to trust CBD companies. The US government legalized hemp in the 2018 US Farm Bill, but there aren’t centralized guidelines for evaluating CBD supplements. There are also many reports of CBD companies selling products with high traces of THC, heavy metals, and, yes, gluten.
The quickest way to evaluate dozens of CBD products is to scan the unbiased reviews on Real Tested CBD. With our partners at KCA Labs, Real Tested CBD provides a clear look into the potency and purity of countless CBD items.
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