New scientific research reveals loopholes in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) protocols that could expose commonly used food items to potentially harmful ingredients.
According to the study published by the American Journal of Public Health, food companies are allowed to self-determine Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) compounds without informing the FDA about them and use them for commercial purposes.
The FDA empowers the food industry to determine which additives are safe to use in different foods. This “loophole” has given the food industry sweeping authority to use dangerous additives like Potassium bromate, which is banned in many countries due to its potential to cause cancer. Europe, Japan, China, and Canada are among some of the regions where Potassium bromate is currently banned. Its dangerous impacts on human health have also encouraged multiple US states like California, New York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania to ban its use.
Jennifer Pomeranz, the scientist who led this study, stated that the American public and the FDA are unaware of how some of the publicly allowed chemicals that are found in routine food items can pose major health hazards.
Being the sole federal food authority in the United States, the FDA is responsible for overseeing the quality of food and stopping the use of dangerous chemicals in edibles, among other duties. However, the FDA’s role in allowing the use of controversial chemicals has come under scrutiny in recent times. Previously, the agency’s GRAS status was only limited to items like spices, vinegar, and other ingredients that were commonly used in food.
However, the FDA changed its regulations in 1997 and allowed the food industry to self-determine which compounds should lie in the category of GRAS. This means that the food industry can even label some new compounds, that have no proven track record of being beneficial for humans, as GRAS.
Legally, food companies are not even bound to provide safety data of these new compounds to the FDA, which means that Americans continue to consume potentially dangerous ingredients without any regulatory oversight. This study also raises questions about the potential conflict of interest as some food companies can prefer to use compounds that could help them in making profits at the expense of public health.
