WASHINGTON: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday took steps to increase oversight of food additives as part of the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative.
President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have worked to enact some priorities of the MAHA movement that supported Kennedy’s 2024 presidential bid and later helped elect Trump, like curbing recommendations for some childhood vaccine.
The FDA on Monday issued a proposed rule that would require food manufacturers to notify the agency when they deem a food additive to be “Generally Recognized as Safe,” or GRAS, according to HHS.
Since 1958, food companies have been permitted to self-affirm that food ingredients are safe without a full government review. Some common GRAS ingredients include canola oil, black pepper and vinegar, according to an FDA webpage.
The FDA strongly encourages companies to notify the agency of new GRAS ingredients, but they aren’t required to.
As a result, “we don’t even know exactly how many chemicals are in the food that Americans eat every day,” said Kennedy at an event in Washington on Monday.
The proposed rule would make that notification mandatory and expand a public inventory of those notices, the agency said.
The rule is being undertaken to “increase transparency and consumer confidence in the food supply,” acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas said in a call with reporters.
“Shifting to a mandatory notification system closes a decades-old information gap,” Diamantas said.
The FDA is accepting comments on the proposed rule for 120 days.
HHS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have also submitted a proposed definition of ultra-processed food for final review, HHS said in a press release. More details about the definition will come at a later date, Diamantas told reporters.
The FDA also plans on Tuesday to release guidance on minimizing biological hazards for processors of fresh-cut produce, Diamantas said. Ongoing outbreaks of salmonella and cyclosporiasis affecting lettuce and jalapenos have sickened thousands of people in the U.S.