Advisors to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are considering a major rewrite of Food and Drug Administration rules governing food additives to meet the wishes of Kennedy and President-elect Donald Trump. “Make America Healthy Again” We pledge to eliminate toxic chemicals from our food supply.
The proposed crackdown is still in its early stages and must be approved by President Trump and his transition team, but it is based on FDA rules that require food additives to be deemed “generally recognized to be safe.” The clause is covered. ,” or GRAS.
Advisors to Mr. Kennedy, whom President Trump nominated to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, have focused on developing food products, including working with agricultural producers to change subsidies and incentives provided by the government for certain types of food. Other approaches to curbing the use of additives are also emerging. Kennedy claims to be unhealthy.
“I think the overall attitude of the FDA should really be significant deregulation. I think we should have a golden age of innovation and drug development. There’s no one to get in the way.” he said on “The Liz Wheeler Show” this month.
Means said a “fraudulent regulatory interpretation” had broken the regulation of additives under the GRAS process, making the GRAS process a “totally rigged system.”
“But when it comes to food, the industry is completely self-regulated when it comes to ‘generally recognized as safe,’ banned in other countries, and labeled as harmful.” “We’re allowing chemicals that have hundreds of studies to be put into our food,” Means said, “and we need to review them.”
“This is a banana system.”
Advocacy groups and experts have criticized the FDA’s actions for years. “loophole” This has allowed companies to secretly decide which chemicals are safe enough to add to their products, without government oversight.
“This is a bananas system. This is not the way new food chemicals should be approved and introduced into our food supply,” said Melanie Benesch, vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group.
Companies using new chemicals can choose to go through a “voluntary” process for authorities to place them on the list of “generally recognized as safe” substances, making it easier to sell food containing the additive. However, authorities acknowledge that companies often get away with it.
“Being able to put chemicals on the market without prior review by the FDA undermines the credibility of the entire system,” Jim Jones, the FDA’s top food official, said in a statement sponsored by the Alliance to Strengthen the FDA. mentioned at the event. At the beginning of this year.
Bill Freese, scientific director of the Center for Food Safety, said companies can “self-certify” that their food additives are safe even after failing to get approval from FDA examiners during the voluntary process. He mentioned the time when he made the decision to “prove it.” .
This is a significant departure from the original intent of the provision, which was supposed to narrowly “grandfather” foods that have long been used safely, such as salt and vinegar, Freeze said.
“These GRAS exemptions should be limited, and the FDA just widened the loophole to the point where it literally swallowed the entire law,” he said.
Obstacles in Congress and the Courts
Requiring companies to go through the GRAS notification process before using new ingredients is likely to face hurdles.
A crackdown on food additives would dramatically expand the FDA’s workload. In addition to reviewing new notifications, the agency will need to review previously approved chemicals.
FDA officials have long urged Congress to increase funding for food additive oversight, warning that the agency’s current mandate lacks resources.
One idea to expand FDA funding — putting a fee on applications submitted by food manufacturers, similar to “user fee” programs for medical products — also failed to gain traction on Capitol Hill. Ta. President Kennedy has also criticized the “royalty fee” system for drugs and called for it to be abolished.
Another roadblock could arise through the courts, especially in light of previous Supreme Court rulings this year It reduced the power of agency.
Advocacy groups lost a federal lawsuit against the FDA seeking to require notification in 2021. In this case, the judge found that “the statute remains unclear whether FDA even has the authority to mandate GRAS notifications.”
“I think there is certainly something within FDA’s authority to narrow the loopholes and make it harder for companies to take advantage of the GRAS process. But I think this is an issue for Congress to resolve. We just have to look at it because there is some legal precedent,” Benesh said.
Kennedy’s team acknowledges that it may ultimately be necessary to resolve the issue through a bill on Capitol Hill, but advisers say changing procedures solely through the executive branch is being considered. said.
President Kennedy previously called on President Trump to “declare a national emergency, but target chronic diseases rather than infectious diseases” as another way to give authorities more power, amid expected pushback from the food industry. He said that
“This is not a monolith, this is not an all-powerful industry. It can be disrupted. So that gives me hope. The voters and President Trump’s microphone are on our side,” Means said. .
The Consumer Brands Association, an industry group representing several major food companies, including cereal maker WK Kellogg and soft drink company Coca-Cola, which President Kennedy criticized, said in a statement that protecting consumer safety is “our top priority. ” he said.
“Federal regulatory agencies within HHS operate on a science- and risk-based mission, and that framework will remain in place under the new administration,” Sarah Gallo, the association’s senior vice president for federal affairs, said in a statement. That’s important,” he said.
Gallo previously said the food industry was open to the FDA taking a more active role in hopes of countering the “state-by-state state-by-state state-by-state state-by-state confusion” in Congress that has pushed for bans. said. some additives.
“As the nation’s largest manufacturing employer, supporting more than 22 million Americans, we are committed to supporting public health, building consumer trust, and promoting consumer choice. We stand ready to work with qualified experts whose appointments are confirmed,” Gallo said.
