Published January 4, 2025.

According to a long standing FDA ruling from 1958, food companies can conclude that new chemical additives are generally recognized as safe for their intended use and then use them in food without notifying the FDA. If companies voluntarily choose to submit the GRAS notice to the FDA, the FDA will issue a no-question asked approval. Once the chemical is designated as GRAS and is used in food, the FDA does not regulate it or re-evaluate it.

As a result, 98.7% of all food chemicals that entered the food marketplace since 2000 were only reviewed and tested by the food and chemical companies manufacturing them. The fourth most common ingredient in packaged food is natural flavors, which fall under the GRAS category. Companies don’t have to disclose food additives used as carriers in their natural flavors on the ingredient labels, which are typically 80-90% synthetic. The most common synthetic additives in natural flavors for beverages and food are propylene glycol, polyglycerol esters of fatty acids, maltodextrin, benzoic acid, polysorbate 80, BHT, BHA, and triacetin.

The GRAS loophole is what allowed food companies to use brominated vegetable oil for 64 years before the FDA finally banned it in 2024 due to concerns surrounding its effect on our thyroid gland.

Last year, Senator Cory Booker and Senator Ed Markey announced the ensuring sand and toxic free foods act to remove the loophole. The act would direct the HHS and FDA to review all new food additives before being introduced to the market and review existing additives that are currently on the market. The Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act would direct the FDA to revise the GRAS Rule to include provisions that: 

1. Prohibit manufacturers from designating substances as safe?without supplying proper notice and supporting information to the Secretary of HHS. 
2. Require safety information be publicly available on the FDA website and subject to a 90-day public review period. 
3. Prohibit carcinogenic substances from receiving GRAS designation. 
4. Prohibit substances that show evidence of reproductive or developmental toxicity from receiving GRAS designation. 
5. Prohibit people with conflicts of interest from serving as experts in reviewing and evaluating scientific data regarding GRAS designations. 
6. Create a procedure of reassessment for substances receiving previous GRAS designations. 

Here is a full list of US House Representatives and their contact information. Here is a full list of US Senators and their contact information. You can ask your representatives to review the Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act 3387. The Act was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, so it is most important to communicate to these committee members that we want this act passed.

Majority Committee Members

• Bernie Sanders, Vermont Chairman
• Patty Murray, Washington
• Bob Casey Jr., Pennsylvania
• Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin
• Chris Murphy, Connecticut
• Tim Kaine, Virginia
• Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire
• Tina Smith, Minnesota
• Ben Ray Luján, New Mexico
• John Hickenlooper, Colorado
• Ed Markey, Massachusetts

Minority Committee Members

• Bill Cassidy, Louisiana, Ranking Member
• Rand Paul, Kentucky
• Susan Collins, Maine
• Lisa Murkowski, Alaska
• Mike Braun, Indiana
• Roger Marshall, Kansas
• Mitt Romney, Utah
• Tommy Tuberville, Alabama
• Markwayne Mullin, Oklahoma
• Ted Budd, North Carolina

Cory Booker's Press Release – Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) joined Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass) to announce the?Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act, legislation that would direct the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to strengthen the Substances Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) Rule, which exempts companies from seeking pre-market approval for food chemicals. The legislation would also direct the Secretary of HHS to create an Office of Food Chemical Safety, Dietary Supplements, and Innovation within FDA to reassess whether existing GRAS substances are safe for families to consume. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) are cosponsors of the legislation.

“Food companies have been taking advantage of a major gap in US food safety laws to add new chemicals to foods without an independent, scientific review of those additives’ safety. As a result, thousands of food products in the United States contain additives that have been banned in other countries for being carcinogenic, endocrine-disrupting, or developmentally harmful,” said Senator Booker. “Americans should not have to eat foods with ingredients that have known health harms. This legislation will close the loophole that allows companies to use toxic substances in foods and food packaging.”

“The only mystery families should encounter at mealtime is what’s for dinner, not what’s in dinner.?Americans deserve to know that the food at their Thanksgiving dinner on the kitchen table is safe for themselves, their families, and loved ones to eat,”?said Senator Markey.?“Our legislation ensures that the FDA doesn’t fall short on their responsibility to ensure that the food we eat is safe. It is long past time that we revise existing food safety measures and close the loophole by allowing manufacturers to self-regulate what new substances can enter our food supply.”

“Toxic chemicals have no place in our food, especially chemicals linked to cancer,” said Scott Faber, Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at the Environmental Working Group. “EWG applauds Senator Markey for once again putting the health of our families ahead of the profits of chemical companies.”

“The Ensuring Safe and Toxic Free Foods Act addresses two critical shortcomings of FDA’s program to protect consumers from additives to food: the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) loophole that allows new chemicals to be added to food without FDA review and the lack of a system to reassess past agency actions for additives we now recognize as unsafe. We applaud Senator Markey for his ongoing leadership on this important public health issue,” Tom Neltner, Senior Director of Safer Chemicals at Environmental Defense Fund.

“Chemicals linked to cancer and other serious health problems are in our daily food – leaching from the packaging and processing materials.? This is unacceptable, and why we support the Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act, said Lisette Van Vliet, [Senior Policy Coordinator] at Breast Cancer Prevention Partners. This important legislation will close a federal loophole that allows companies to secretly use toxic chemicals for food packaging and processing without FDA oversight or approval.”

“Consumers rightfully expect the Food and Drug Administration – not industry – to ensure that the food we feed our families is safe. Earthjustice is grateful for the continued leadership of Senator Markey in his reintroduction of the Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act to help turn that expectation into reality. This vital legislation will finally fix a system that has allowed thousands of chemicals into our food that have never been scrutinized by the FDA. For decades, the agency has allowed companies to make safety determinations on their own and in secret. This must stop. Critically, this bill will also require the FDA to use the best available science to review the safety of harmful food chemicals already in commerce. It is long past time for the United States to join the rest of the modern world in protecting its consumers from harmful chemicals in food. Let’s get this done,” said Daniel Savery, Senior Legislative Representative at Earthjustice.

“For far too long, companies have utilized the GRAS Loophole to secretly introduced new chemicals into our foods without ever notifying the FDA,” said Peter Lurie, President of Center for Science in the Public Interest. “The Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act helps close the GRAS loophole and keep dangerous chemicals out of our foods.”

To read the full text of the bill, click here."