I spend plenty of time criticizing Kennedy’s public health decisions (including the piece above about last week’s vaccine executive order). But when his agencies do something good, I should recognize that.
I found one. This week the FDA proposed closing a food labeling loophole. For the last few decades federal food labeling regulations let some food ingredients skip the normal food-additive approval process if they’re generally recognized by experts as safe.
Read the FDA’s proposed rule in the Federal Register.
Right now, a food company can decide on their own that they believe a new ingredient they’re using is “Generally Recognized as Safe” and say that on the label without even telling the FDA.
Companies can send FDA their safety information for review, but right now they don’t have to.
Under the proposed rule, companies would have to tell FDA what ingredient they’re using and explain why they think it’s safe. That means FDA would finally have a better idea of what companies are putting into the food supply and what evidence they’re using to call those ingredients safe.
This wouldn’t mean FDA has to approve every ingredient a manufacturer declares as generally recognized as safe before it can be sold. A company could still put an ingredient on the market before FDA finishes reviewing its safety notice.
But requiring companies to tell FDA what they’re doing and show the evidence behind their safety claims is a meaningful improvement.
One thing the proposal wouldn’t change is food labeling. It wouldn’t require a company to tell consumers on the package that an ingredient went through the generally accepted as safe process nor would it tell you whether FDA has actually reviewed the company’s safety evidence.
So this proposal would make the food supply more transparent to the remaining FDA staff, but it won’t make things any clearer for somebody standing in the grocery aisle reading a label.
Credit where limited credit is due. This is a sensible public health move from the Kennedy FDA.
