Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants food makers to stop quietly greenlighting their own ingredients. The health secretary is rolling out a proposal to tighten the "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) process, which has let companies decide some additives are safe without telling the FDA, the Washington Post reports. The new rule would force firms to notify the agency when they make GRAS determinations and explain their reasoning, a move acting FDA chief Kyle Diamantas says would close an "information gap" while staying within current law.
- "We believe that these initiatives will actually improve the FDA's ability to effectively execute on its mission by having greater transparency into the number of ingredients in the food supply," Diamantas said.
The FDA would have up to 180 days to review submissions but couldn't block products while that happens. Industry groups argue such a shift should go through Congress and be paired with more FDA funding. Food safety advocates have criticized the loophole, saying the list of additives companies have deemed safe without informing the FDA has expanded over the years. An investigation released earlier this year found that 111 substances of unknown safety had been quietly added to food, drinks, and supplements, CNN reports.
"Manufacturers now routinely exploit this GRAS loophole — it's fast becoming more 'generally recognized as secret' instead of 'generally recognized as safe,'" said Melanie Benesh, at the Environmental Working Group, the health advocacy organization that conducted the investigation. The proposals come amid multiple outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, though they don't directly address the food safety issues involved in the outbreaks, CNBC reports.
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