Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final rule outlining the criteria that will decide whether or not an ingredient meant for use in human or animal food is generally recognized as safe (GRAS).
The GRAS criteria require that the safe use of ingredients in human and animal food be widely recognized by the appropriate qualified experts. The final rule also formalizes the voluntary GRAS notification procedure, which was originally established under an interim policy and pilot program for human food in 1997 and animal food in 2010.