Government Funding Bill Ends Protection for THC-Infused Products
Cheech and Chong will be bummed. In the process of ending the government shutdown this week, Congress shut down a growing food and beverage category: THC-infused products.
An amendment slipped into this week’s federal funding bill closed a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed a decades-long prohibition on hemp-derived products. Companies were allowed to sell products that had up to 0.3% delta-9 THC derived from hemp. Although that’s the intoxicating compound in cannabis, that low a percentage shouldn’t get anyone high.
But some companies found creative ways to make products, especially THC drinks and edibles, that exceeded that threshold, or they added other intoxicating cannabinoids – derived from hemp but not specifically outlawed – such as delta-8 THC, delta-10 THC or synthetic variants, with enough total THC to be intoxicating.
The disassociation of hemp from marijuana has been a boon to hemp farmers, while the market for these mildly intoxicating products has grown to $28 billion, according to media reports.
One year from today, beginning Nov. 13, 2026, hemp products can only be sold if they contain no more than 0.4mg of THC per container (previously it was based on percentage by weight).
The pending 2025 Farm Bill would have imposed that 0.4mg limit anyway. While the full Farm Bill was not included in this week’s funding package, this hemp amendment and other components were included in the Agriculture Dept.’s temporary funding.
About the Author
Dave Fusaro
Editor in Chief
Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.