CBD products require expensive extraction and packaging equipment and have regulatory issues, technically illegal to FDA. Fiber products need huge investment in infrastructure for an expensive product not yet approved for commercial building, or a $20 million investment if you want to make textiles. Producing fuel requires more energy than it provides and is expensive if made from hempseed. Farming is hard and more farmers have failed at hemp than have succeeded the last few years.

So then, what’s a safe and easy way to enter the hemp industry? Food.

Since 1994 thus relatively new in the space, food was hemp’s first billion-dollar segment and has long been 90% of Canadian hemp. Incorporating hempseed into existing foods is also the easiest way for any company to “get into hemp.”

An existing food company could be up-and-running with a new hemp food in a matter of weeks. Mere line extensions or entire new categories are possible. Foodservice too, your college students will love it.

Over 90% of all recipes or CPG foods could easily use primary hempseed products like shelled hempseed, whole hempseed, presscake, or hempseed oil. All those items are 100% legal to FDA, with their GRAS status accepted in 2018. CBD and hemp flowers themselves can also be used in foods, although they are not yet GRAS each state can make them so, and many have.

From using the shelled seed and hempseed oil to sophisticated industrial ingredients for other processers, hempseed as an ingredient for foods can take on many forms.

Powdered hemp flowers, powdered shelled seed, fractionated proteins, texturized proteins… new ingredients are emerging monthly. There’s been more progress the last 7 years than the first 12,000 in this area.

Potential food applications for shelled hempseed include baby food, bagels, beverage, bird seed, biscotti, bread, breading, breakfast cereal, brownies, cakes, camping food, candy, caramel, cheesecake, chocolate, coffee, cookies, crackers, cream cheese, cream soup, dessert topping, dip, dressing, dry mixes, energy bar, extruded or puffed snacks, falafel, fish food, flour, frozen dessert, fudge, granola, hard cheese, hummous, ice cream topping, marinade, mayonnaise, meat alternative, medical foods, miso, muesli, muffins, nut butter, oil, pancakes, parmesan alternative, pasta, pastries, pesto sauce, pie crust, pilaf, pita bread, pralines, pretzels, protein powder, pudding, sauces, scones, seasoning, shakes, smoothies, snack chips, sour cream, spread, stir-fry, tabouli, tahini, tapenade, tempeh, toffee, tofu, tortillas, trail mix, truffles, veggie burger, waffles, yogurt, and much more.

Show me your product list or menu and I’ll tell you which of your products you can incorporate hemp into, which hemp products, and how. Click the Contact Form here and send it to me, or ask to questions.

I’ll give you a few names of suppliers if appropriate, but have absolutely no products to sell you. None, zip, nada. This is not a sales funnel disguised as a public service, it’s a public service which looks like a sales funnel.

I’m retired so I don’t charge for this, as it’s long been my mission to progress the hemp food industry as much as possible before I go to “the great tofu factory in the sky.”

If you don’t know who I am, click here to Google “Richard Rose” “hemp food”. After helping create the modern hemp food industry 28 years ago and the modern vegan foods industry 42 years ago, if I can’t help you probably no one can.

I now write The Richard Rose Report with all the latest news, analysis, context, history, products, and policy information on hemp.