Good News: Trump Admin Moves to Enhance Food Safety, Transparency
FDA proposes stronger oversight of food additives
The Trump administration is making good on its pledge to Make America Healthy Again.
For too long, food manufacturers have been trusted to decide for themselves whether the substances they put in our food are “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS), with little to no oversight by federal officials. A new rule proposed by the Trump Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would change that.
- The proposed rule would require manufacturers to notify the FDA when they conclude their additives are GRAS, a designation that allows manufacturers to skip the typical pre-market approval process. Such notification has been voluntary since 1958, when Congress established the GRAS exemption for common food ingredients with established safety records under the 1958 Food Additive Amendment to the U.S. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
The agency has also submitted its first-ever proposed definition of “ultra-processed foods” for final review.
Making America Healthy Again
The Aug. 10 announcement comes as part of the Trump administration’s push to Make America Healthy Again, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. leading the charge.
- “Nearly 60 percent of the American diet is made up of ultra-processed foods, and childhood obesity now affects more than one in five American children,” Kennedy said in a press statement. “We cannot reverse America’s chronic disease epidemic without transforming our food system. These historic actions bring greater transparency to what’s in our food and stronger science to federal nutrition policy. President Trump and I promised to Make America Healthy Again, and today we are turning that promise into policy.”
Why It Matters
Speaking with reporters on a press call, Acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas said the GRAS rule change would boost industry transparency and consumer confidence in the food supply.
- “While intended as an exemption, over time the GRAS pathway became the primary entry point for the majority of substances entering the U.S. food supply, far exceeding the number of substances coming through the more transparent food additive deficit pathway,” Diamantas said.
- The exemption’s overuse has left the FDA with an incomplete inventory of all additives in the food supply, giving rise to questions about the safety of foods Americans consume every day. “Decades of administrative experience demonstrate a clear need to update this voluntary structure to enable FDA to better carry out its statutory responsibility to prohibit the use of unsafe additives in food,” Diamantas said.
- The acting commissioner noted that the new rule would not create a pre-market approval process for GRAS substances, though he stressed that it would increase transparency and allow the FDA to review manufacturers’ conclusions.
According to Health and Human Services officials, the absence of a standardized definition for ultra-processed foods has also limited research consistency across the federal government. The proposed definition, yet to be unveiled, was crafted with input from industry representatives, consumer organizations, researchers, and members of the public.
The Bottom Line
- The Trump administration is taking positive steps to enhance food industry transparency and boost public health. Promises made, promises kept.
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