By Bobby Jindal and Taylor Hood
Americans have a right to know what is in their food.
That shouldn’t be controversial. You should be able to walk into a grocery store, read a label, and be confident that the ingredients listed on the food you are buying have been subject to transparent, science-based oversight and are safe for consumption. The Trump administration has now taken an important step toward doing exactly that.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a rule requiring food manufacturers to notify the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) whenever they determine that an added substance is Generally Recognized as Safe, or “GRAS.” When Congress passed the Food Additives Amendment in 1958, the idea was simple: ingredients with a documented history of safe use or those that qualified experts had agreed were safe should not face the same pre-market approval process as brand-new food additives. Everyday substances like salt, vinegar, black pepper, and baking powder fall into this category.
Unfortunately, our regulatory system has fallen short of that basic standard. And over time, the exception became the rule.
Under the current system, manufacturers can self-determine whether a new additive is GRAS and introduce it to the U.S. food supply without notifying the FDA or the public. The manufacturer is still responsible for maintaining evidence to support its own determination, but the FDA may have no advance notice when a new substance enters the supply chain.
