Clock: How the FDA opens the door to risky chemicals in American food supply

On the shelves of American supermarkets, food with chemicals are associated with health concerns. To a large extent, the FDA enables food companies to determine whether their ingredients and additives are safe.

Companies do not have to tell the FDA about these decisions, and they do not have to list all ingredients on their product labels. Instead, companies can use broad terms such as “artificial flavors”.

In 1958, the Congress commissioned that the manufacturers of additives in food had to prove that they were safe and that the FDA had to receive. However, the congress issued an exception to substances that were “generally recognized as safe” and were simply known as grass.

As designed, Grass promised the regulatory relief for standard components such as salt, sugar, vinegar and baking powder. Over time, “the gap has swallowed the law,” said a report by the natural resource defense council from 2014.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary for health and human services, would like to close or tighten the grass gap. He has led over the risks of food additives for years and said he wanted to end “mass poisoning of American children”.

Regardless of whether changes come from the FDA or the food company, the Americans are clearer what they buy.