California Governor Gavin Newsom has issued an executive order that mandates state agencies explore the safety of ultra-processed foods, food dyes, and "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) ingredients, and recommend actions to mitigate the adverse health effects.
In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we discuss the top food safety stories of 2024 and their implications, including high-profile foodborne illness outbreaks, the ongoing avian flu outbreak in poultry and dairy cattle, FDA’s Human Foods Program restructuring, rising concerns and evolving legislation around food additives and chemical contaminants, and other topics.
After a poisoning outbreak linked to “legal” mushroom-based edibles sold across the country, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has informed industry that the mushroom Amanita muscaria is not authorized for use as an ingredient in food.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s Toxic Free Food Act would require the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to overhaul the “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) process, calling it a “loophole” that allows substances to secretly enter the food supply without adequate safety review.
Senator Cory Booker’s Safe School Meals Act proposes widespread reforms that would reduce the presence of toxic heavy metals, pesticides, artificial food dyes, and chemicals in school lunches, and would mandate research to progress remediation methods for environmental contaminants polluting farms.
In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, leading medical and food law experts have raised concerns about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) process for the introduction of ingredients to the food supply, and are calling on the agency to proactive steps to ensure the safety of new food substances.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have granted “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) status to INNEO, a food processing aid that uses antimicrobial peptides to eliminate Listeria monocytogenes in food.
A recent review of carcinogenicity data submitted to support U.S. FDA “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) determinations for food substances has shown that, although the types of carcinogenicity data are varied, safety is typically adequately evidenced. Still, a standardized approach defining which data is required to support a GRAS determination could be useful.
As part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) continued efforts to more systematically and transparently review and regulate food additives, the agency has reassessed and revoked the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) determination for tara flour. The ingredient is not authorized for use in food.
This article discusses the recent wave of state bills on food additives that have emerged following the California Food Safety Act, FDA’s activities in an effort to get ahead of an inconsistent patchwork of legislation, and criticisms about these bills voiced by legislators, regulators, and industry stakeholders.
