Hemptastic – Food

Hemp seeds are a super food and can be brought as oil or as dehulled, hemp hearts.

The seed can be cold pressed in to oil, with a low saturated fat (8% of total oil volume) The oil contains 55% linoleic Acid (LA – Omega 6) and 25% linolenic acid (LNA – Omega 3) only Flax has more LNA at 58% but hemp seed has the highest total essential fatty acids at 80% of total oil volume.

The by product of oil pressing is a high quality protein seed cake, which is unique as 65% of the protein is in the form of globulin edestin plus the albumin contained in all seeds, the protein contains all the essential amino acids in ideal proportions to build a strong immune system.

It can be sprouted, ground and baked, made in to milk, icecream and many other edible products.  It is one of the finest complete and available to the body vegetable proteins available.  

It is a complete food source, suitable for domestic and farmed animals.

In time we will see sacks of hemp seed being delivered to communities in need following man made and natural disasters.  It is in its own perfect container (as a seed) for transport and will sustain human life. Hemp seed should be grown widely to solve world hunger.

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Hemp Food – issue with FSANZ Food Ministers

Hemp foods for human consumption has been an issue since 1998, when application “A360 – Hemp as a Novel Food” was first submitted to the Australia New Zealand Food Safety Ministers.

In 2000 New Zealand food policy was taken over by a joint approach with Australia, they get 8 votes as states and territories plus one for the federal government, so they get 9 votes and New Zealand gets one vote.

A360 was submitted by Phil Warner at Eco Fibre, after four years of stakeholder consultation it was first voted (or ignored) in December 2002 when it was unanimously rejected, it was reconsidered in 2005 but this also resulted in a no vote.

Another application “A1039 Low THC hemp seed foods” was received by Food Safety Australia and New Zealand in December 2009, another 4 years of stakeholder consultation followed and this application was finally rejected in Jan 2015.

The officials working at the food ministries in Australia and New Zealand have produced some excellent documents and have always recommended to the Food Ministers that the food is safe and should be allowed for human consumption.

However the Food minsters continue to vote no, recently our Food Minister Hon Jo Goodhew has become supportive of access to hemp Foods, and has instructed the ministry to overcome the four issues which are of concern

These four issues have been brought up in every official communique, since the first no vote in 2002

The main problems are the Victorian state police preoccupation with road side swab testing for driving while under the influences of cannabis.  These swab tests are banned in New Zealand as they are not reliable. Either way there is no way that minute traces of thc in hemp foods would trigger a positive reading.

The other main issue is “sending mixed messages to the youth on the Safety of cannabis” this relates to labeling as they don’t want to see the leaf being used to advise hemp foods.  

This energy drink has been sold in New Zealand for around 10 years, with a huge leaf on it, it contains no hemp and is simply trading on the image of the leaf, in this time Food Safety nor Medicines Control have stopped the sale of this drink which used to be found in nearly every corner dairy in the country.

Worldwide food manufactures have not used the leaf as they do want the stigma of the marijuana leaf to put off there customers.

Despite the ban on hemp seed as a human food, the magic of labeling has allowed hulled hemp seed, (the heart/meal in the seed)  to be sold in Australia and New Zealand as an animal food.  

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