https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fda-officially-confirms-kava-food-140000605.html
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), After Reviewing Historical Use and Modern Safety Evidence, Officially Confirms Kava is a Food Under Federal Law
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has officially confirmed that kava is a conventional food under federal law. This acknowledgment marks a pivotal moment in the national understanding of kava, providing long-needed clarity across federal and state systems and affirming that, when prepared and enjoyed as a beverage (i.e. kava tea), kava holds a legitimate and established place within the nation's food landscape.
This federal confirmation, issued through multiple FDA case responses, has already guided the State of Hawaii and the State of Michigan, with additional states now reviewing the same evidence, to determine that the kava beverage qualifies as Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) based on its extensive history of safe, cultural use. For Pacific Island communities, including Native Hawaiians whose cultural practices, ceremonies, and community life have been intertwined with kava for generations, the people of American Samoa, and the many Fijian, Tongan, and other Pacific Islander families throughout the United States, this acknowledgment carries profound significance. It affirms the deep cultural legacy of kava, strengthens recognition of Pacific Islander heritage in the United States, and honors a cultural food that is now finding an increasingly meaningful place in modern American life.
FDA Issues Written Statements Affirming Kava Tea as a Conventional Food
Kava's longstanding cultural use as a beverage informs how federal law evaluates traditional foods, and this history shaped the FDA's recent clarification. When asked to confirm how kava should be treated under federal food law, the agency provided some of its clearest language to date. In responding, the FDA affirmed the classification of the kava beverage and stated:
"You are correct that kava mixed with water as a single ingredient conventional food would generally not be regulated as a food additive if the tea is consumed as food."
In another communication, the agency reinforces this, explaining that "Kava tea can be considered as a food, provided that the tea and labeling are compliant with FDA's food safety and food labeling regulations".
More information:
(Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Friday January 02, @07:55PM (6 children)
Kava's alright. I like teas so I heard about it (in a science fiction book... Mars Trilogy by KSR from the 90s I think) and I tried it and its OK.
The hard sci fi plot was pretty reasonable that Martians will want to get intoxicated occasionally like anyone else and the author's opinion was kava will probably dominate on Mars over any other intoxicant even weed. I don't recall the logic, like doesn't kava grow in the shade on earth so being in mars orbit would be just about right for it?
Anyway. Kava. Its a cold infusion/tea. Have to soak it awhile IIRC or buy a much more expensive "instant" just dissolve in water (like instant coffee vs ground coffee grinds, for example). Best sipped slowly. Numbs the mouth a bit and calms you down about half as much as caffeinated tea fires you up. No one drinks it for the taste which is vaguely muddy, unlike most looseleaf teas which are delicious. Then again people drink powdered instant tea which tastes awful compared to looseleaf so maybe people would "like" kava.
Subjectively a cup is like a half of a beer without the classic alcohol buzz.
Kind of like how some beers are repulsive if you're sober but once you're drunk they're pretty good, kava tea tastes a lot less muddy after your mouth gets numb.
I slept really well after a cup. I'd think mixing kava with driving, especially late at night, would be a really bad idea.
The "kava scene" a couple years back was suffering horribly from "yo 420 get high woo hoo 420" people, who were also trying to make kava pills, kava soda (seriously, a soda that tastes like mud?), numerous other kava products like "psychedelic good mood mix" and non-alcohol imitation liquors which I imagine cannot work well. I suspect the ruling that tea only is legal, plus the near legalization of THC products means the people who were annoying around kava have or will move on making the kava community more traditional and much, much less weirdo.
Holy cow is Kava expensive now on Amazon. IIRC a pound of ground kava (which makes about as much drink as a pound of ground coffee) was "like twenty bucks" around Y2K era and is "like $40 to $70 per pound" now.
I don't think it'll ever make the rounds at bars. If a pound is $50 at home the cost of having a bartender make a single drink at a bar would have to be like $100 per glass looking at the usual markups. But, at home its affordable. If you have the gear to make looseleaf tea (LOL I sure do... I drink a lot of tea you'd think I'm a closeted Englishman the way I always have a pot brewing when its cold out) then just use ice cold water and cold-brew some ground kava, or do the more expensive instant mix.
Mildly curious if anyone else here has drank or does drink kava. Looks like it would be an expensive but affordable hobby now.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday January 02, @08:08PM
Oh and one other comment:
I like my tea straight no added sugar no added cream no three donuts and a pack of cookies with it. I pay for the "good stuff" Yunnan Black usually organic so its not bitter actually it tastes really good! I'm well aware "lots of people" use tea time as excuse to gorge on junk food while "drinking tea" although its not my thing.
I bring this up because I can't imagine eating anything while drinking kava. The muddy water flavor would not go well with anything I can think of. You will likely not have a cup of freshly brewed cold kava with a slice of hot apple pie or a couple donuts or whatever junk food. I don't see it going well with food. I guess if you're really hungry?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by oregonjohn on Friday January 02, @08:40PM
In Berkeley some 10 years ago or more I was introduced to a kava bar. We had a nice time, the drink was difficult to 'enjoy' but it did seem to open up a conversational atmosphere - at least for me. I'm normally socially quiet and awkward but became gregarious talking with whoever at the bar would make eye contact. That bar is gone now, lasted a few years.
In Ashland, Oregon a few years ago there was a kava bar and I had the same quite nice experience. They've been closed for maybe 5 years now and had lasted a couple of years.
At a peace festival two years ago I got a tincture of kava in an eye dropper vial. Still that odd taste and slight numbing but a small amount under the tongue had the same gregarious effect. If I have to speak at an event now I'll use that to open my willingness to speak out, sometimes too much and too loudly LOL. There is no sense of drunkenness at all, which is good for me since the whole world is a better place for me not drinking one day at a time.
Still got the tincture and use it when I know I'm going into what, for me, would be an awkward communication situation. I have no idea if the tincture is legal.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday January 03, @06:49AM (1 child)
Have they clarified whether organic gluten-free vegan soy chicken is a food yet?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday January 03, @02:52PM
Pretty sure thats a "no" LOL
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 03, @06:04PM (1 child)
Englishman, unless you're secretly from 'oop north', no.
Scots or Irish, most definitely yes.
Welsh, most probably.
The global tea consumption league table has the UK in 35th place with an annual consumption of 1.48 kg per capita, Ireland in 31st place with a consumption of 1.68 kg per capita, however from other data they know that us Scots drink six times as much tea as the Irish, so, based on 2022 figures, doing per capita calculations for the countries that make up the UK whilst keeping the UK entry in, the revised global table would have entries akin to
Scotland: 10 kg per capita, 8th position globally
Northern Ireland: 1.68 kg per capita, joint 32nd with Ireland.
UK: 1.48 kg per capita, 36th position globally
England and Wales: 0.66 kg per capita, 66th position globally.
Still, we're mere tyros compared to the Srl Lankans in first place with their 50 kg per capita figure...
If you want to be more conservative and say that the Scots only drink four times as much tea as the Irish, and that 4x multiplier hasn't been pulled from a hat but is based solely on last year's invoices for purchases of our main loose leaf tea (we buy a lot more tea varieties and types than it on an ad hoc basis, we're probaby closer to a household figure of 16 kg per capita) then still keeping the UK entry in, you end up with
Scotland: 6.72 kg per capita, 10th position globally
Northern Ireland: 1.68 kg per capita, joint 32nd with Ireland.
UK: 1.48 kg per capita, 36th position globally
England and Wales: 0.98 kg per capita, joint 51st with Mongolia.
So, banish those 'closeted Englishman' thoughts and embrace your inner mad Scot/Irishman...
Besides, and I say this as one who had lived amongst them for two decades, as is the most unfortunate habit of the heathen tribes of Southern England (the ones that most people think of as the archetypal 'English tea drinker' with their fine bone china cups and their pinkies out...), their dipping of a (shudders) tea bag of a (shudders) Tetleyan variety for a femtosecond into a cup of merely lukewarm water and colouring the resultant homeopathetic tincture with (shudders) skimmed (shudders) milk does not a cup of tea make...who'd wish to mistake anyone not of these tribes be one capable of promulgating such evil barbaric practices?
(Score: 2) by Rich on Sunday January 04, @04:20PM
Well, they do have the concept of "builders' tea", which is allegedly judged with the same spoon stability procedure as "proper" Italian espresso.