Two consumer groups are urging Congress to reject the FDA Review and Evaluation of Safe, Healthy, and Affordable Foods (FRESH Act), citing industry interference in the legislative process.
billThe bill, introduced by Rep. Kat Cammack, R-FL, “would further weaken an already broken system that allows dozens of food chemicals to hit the market with little government oversight,” according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
EWG argues that the proposed law would strike down rules on the information companies must submit to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about “generally recognized as safe (GRAS)” food chemicals. These chemicals are not subject to FDA inspection, testing, or oversight.
Consumer Reports also opposes the bill, saying it would block states from reviewing food chemicals.
“At a time when consumers are demanding the removal of toxic chemicals from food and increased transparency about food ingredients, the FRESH Act would instead weaken existing regulations that provide consumers with a critical layer of protection,” said Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports.
“By blocking important state food safety laws and further weakening FDA oversight, this bill represents a major step backwards for our food oversight system. Consumer Reports urges Congress to reject this bill.”
Likewise, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has already gone on record opposing the law. CSPI argues that the FRESH Act would broadly block state food safety policies while also weakening current FDA authority for premarket safety review of substances used in food.
“The bill contains an industry-backed preemption provision that would broadly eliminate state protections ‘related to the use, labeling, sale, or marketing’ of food or dietary supplements,” according to CSPI.
“This effort precisely targets recent progress on food policy in the United States, including new bans on hazardous chemicals, heavy metal testing requirements, limits on sales of harmful dietary supplements to children, and unveiling new allergen and nutritional menus. This extreme preemption language hurts consumers, but it also allows big food companies to score big wins last year. Released “It is a multi-million dollar effort to broadly preempt state safety and labeling laws.”
EWG also questions whether the food industry truly benefits from the law.
“Blocking state action and further weakening FDA review of chemicals is a food industry dream come true: no state or federal regulation, no problem,” said Melanie Benesh, vice president of government affairs at EWG.
“In addition to allowing new chemicals to be added to foods without FDA review, the FDA does not regularly re-examine the safety of chemicals we already eat. However, industry legislation does not require the FDA to review a single food chemical for safety.
“The funding proposed in this bill is a fig leaf. This proposal will make our food less safe by allowing industry experts, not experts we trust, to decide whether new food chemicals are safe and to ensure that the chemicals we already eat are safe.”
Legislation under the FRESH and Affordable Foods Act includes:
- Preempts all state food chemistry laws, retroactively and prospectively, including bills banning toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS in food packaging and artificial dyes in school lunches.
- Allows new food chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive harm to be considered “safe.”
- Allows new food chemicals to be added to foods without definitive safety confirmation from the FDA.
- Retroactively approves all food chemicals currently considered GRAS.
- Allows new chemicals to be added to foods if the FDA does not respond to a GRAS notification within 90 days.
- Allows food chemical companies to add new chemicals to foods as long as they submit an “overview” of the chemical company’s safety conclusions.
- Allows new chemicals to be added to foods without providing basic information, such as dietary exposure estimates, to the FDA.
- Automatically designates new chemicals as GRAS when reviewed by an industry-funded panel of experts and allows them to be used in food immediately.
- Allows companies to use food chemicals in new ways without having to ask the FDA for approval. and
- Chemicals can be added to food for two years after the FDA determines they are no longer safe, as long as there is no serious and imminent risk of harm.
Under current law, chemical companies, not the FDA, decide whether food chemicals are safe. According to EWG, since 2000, nearly all new food chemicals (nearly 99%) have entered the market through GRAS loopholes.
Currently, many, if not all, chemical companies wishing to bring new chemicals to market submit GRAS notifications to the FDA, and the FDA responds with a “no questions asked” letter.
