Reintroduced to Congress on July 10, the Food Chemical Reassessment Act of 2025 would require the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reevaluate the safety of chemicals—including “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) substances, food dyes, and food contact substances—every three years.

The legislation is sponsored by Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL-09), Ranking Member of the Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03).

Intended to ensure that chemicals that have “entered the food supply through loopholes or were reviewed by FDA decades ago are safe to eat,” the bill would require the new Office of Food Chemical Safety, Dietary Supplements, and Innovation in FDA’s Human Foods Program to study every three years the safety of at least ten chemicals added to the nation's food or food packaging, starting with:

• Tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ)
• Titanium dioxide
• Food colorants red dye 40, yellow dye 5, blue dye 1, blue dye 2, and green dye 3
• Perchlorate
• Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA)
• Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)
• Trichloroethylene
• Methylene chloride
• Benzene
• Ethylene chloride
• Propyl gallate
• Sodium nitrite
• Sodium benzoate.

Additionally, the bill would also re-establish a Food Advisory Council to advise FDA on the best methods to review the safety of food chemicals.

The legislation is meant to address the GRAS “loophole” through which many new chemicals have entered the food supply without federal oversight or safety evaluation. Originally intended to allow ingredients with a longstanding history of safe use (e.g., vinegar) to legally remain in foods, GRAS has been leveraged by food manufacturers to determine for themselves whether any food ingredient or additive is “safe” without federal review, regardless of its novelty, and voluntarily notify FDA of its inclusion in their products. In March 2025, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Directed FDA to explore rulemaking to eliminate the GRAS process.

The Food Chemical Reassessment Act of 2025 is endorsed by the Center for Science and the Public Interest (CSPI), Consumer Reports, the Environmental Working Group (EWG), the Environmental Defense Fund, and Food and Water Watch.

“FDA routinely allows substances to remain in foods long after evidence of harm emerges. While the agency has pledged to systemically reassess these chemicals, the Food Chemical Reassessment Act would ensure FDA completes those evaluations in a timely manner and begins with chemicals that already have evidence of harm,” said Peter Lurie, M.D., M.P.H., President and Executive Director of CSPI.

"Too many food chemicals in our food supply haven't been properly reviewed for safety, or haven't been looked at in decades," remarked Jessica Hernandez, EWG Policy Director. "Other countries regularly reexamine the safety of food chemicals as new science emerges, but here in the U.S., food chemicals have been left behind in a regulatory black hole.”