RFK Jr. Moves to Tighten Loophole on Food Supply Chemicals

Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has directed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to "explore potential rulemaking" to tighten a loophole permitting food companies to put chemicals in their products without notifying the nation's food regulators, The Washington Post reported.

Currently, due to the decades-old loophole, companies aren't required to tell the FDA when they include some chemicals and substances in their products, meaning there are most likely hundreds of such ingredients added to the food supply without government oversight.

Some foods that came onto the market through this loophole, called GRAS ("generally recognized as safe") have later raised safety concerns.

Scott Faber, a senior vice president of the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, said of the announcement that "it is the lowest of low-hanging fruit. But to be fair, this small step is one that no administration has previously taken."

He cautioned, however, that HHS appeared to be simply announcing a "plan to plan."

The Washington Post pointed out that the process of issuing new rules often takes years to propose and then finalize, and no timeline for agency action was given.

Kennedy's announcement to potentially tighten the loophole came the same day as he met with company executives from Tyson Foods, General Mills, and Kraft Heinz.

The Consumer Brands Association, a food industry trade group, called the conversation "constructive," with Sarah Gallo, a senior vice president at the organization, saying that the GRAS "process plays an important role in enabling companies to innovate to meet consumer demand. As the administration looks to revise GRAS, we stand ready to work with agency experts on continued analysis of safe ingredients and increase consumer transparency."

Robert Califf, who served as former President Joe Biden's FDA commissioner, said that Kennedy's proposal "would be really good, but it would mean that the FDA would have to staff up to assess the data that would determine whether an ingredient is safe. I'm 100% in favor but the budget impact would be significant."

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