Trump administration pushes stricter oversight of food ingredients

New York: The Trump administration on Monday proposed a rule that would require food companies to inform government regulators when they add new ingredients to products.

Doing so would close a decades-old loophole that food safety experts have said allowed thousands of substances including thickeners, stabilizers and flavorings to enter the US food supply with little oversight or safety assurances.

"Parents should not need a chemistry degree to understand what children are eating. Americans deserve real transparency. They deserve real food," said Trump's health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr in unveiling the proposed measure, which will be subject to public comment.


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For many years, food and beverage companies could introduce new ingredients without Food and Drug Administration review, thanks to a decades-old rule known as "GRAS," or "generally recognized as safe."

The rule had been intended to allow bypassing review for common ingredients such as flour or baking soda.

But companies used to self-certify a much broader class of substances.

Food manufacturers have pushed against efforts at GRAS reform, along with Kennedy's efforts to craft a finalized federal definition of ultra-processed foods, which he has long vowed to do.

He said Monday that such a definition had been developed, but did not release it.

The proposed GRAS rule, which is so far light on details and without a timeline, is sure to delight the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, which Kennedy on Monday personally thanked.

"Thank you to the MAHA movement and to the millions of Americans across the political spectrum who believe that their children deserve to eat real food," Kennedy said.

The MAHA movement is best known for championing Kennedy's policies on rolling back vaccine recommendations, overturning the traditional food pyramid and successfully pushing for the reduced use of synthetic food dyes.

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"You built this movement from the ground up," he said. "You demanded change, and today we are transforming our food system because of you."

Kennedy for months has been leaning into food and nutrition advocacy ahead of November's midterm elections, downplaying his far more controversial efforts to upend national vaccine policy.

The health secretary has long espoused anti-vax views, and public health experts accuse him of contributing significantly to a growing measles crisis by fueling fears of well-studied and proven immunizations.