After more than a year and a half of development, in 2023 May 25 Lithuanian start-up "H Drop" presents the snack "Cannabites" to the European market. This product is the first of its kind in the world, created in cooperation between Lithuanian and Japanese food technologists and businesses.
"The preliminary presentation of the new product announced at the Foodex 2023 exhibition in Tokyo in mid-March has already attracted the attention of several large customers. Japanese partners expect that the first orders from this country alone could amount to about 200-300 thousand. EUR", says Vladas Latvėnas, head of H Drop.
"Cannabites" is a snack made from lyophilized (freeze-dried) fruits and cannabis, characterized by valuable substances and attractive taste properties.
Freeze-dried fruits have already become Lithuania's business card thanks to excellent local producers. Using this experience, we saw an opportunity to create a truly innovative product. We have combined advanced cold drying and hemp processing technologies. Gummies and other sweets with cannabinoids have been popular in the world for some time, but most of them are rich in sugar and other unwanted substances, so we sought to offer consumers a healthy vegan alternative", says V. Latvėnas.
A localized version of the product is presented to the European market, including Lithuania. Kaunas scientists used a combination of freeze-dried strawberries, pineapples, bananas and a special ingredient of hemp flowers, which complies with local legislation. This will allow consumers to experience the benefits of the full-spectrum actives of fibrous hemp in a tasty and legal way.
According to Rok Šliupas, co-founder of H Drop, the most difficult part of the process of developing Cannabites was to maneuver between the regulations of different countries. "In Japan, the use of cannabinoids, including cannabidiol, in food products is fully permitted, but the consumption of fibrous hemp flowers for food is prohibited. Meanwhile, the procedure in force in the European Union is the opposite. So, in the European version we use special ingredients of hemp flowers. The rings are quite bitter and contain the psychotropic substance THC, so the technologists had to spend a long time in the laboratory until they found a way to create a truly delicious product in which THC would not exceed the permissible limits", says R. Šliupas.
At the moment, the product is available only in the electronic store of the manufacturer, and should be on the shelves of retail chains soon.
In the near future, the product line will also be introduced in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, JAV, for Polish markets and on the international Amazon trading platform.
