NRDC Report on Chemicals in Food: Too Often Their Safety is Secret

Congress created an unsettling loophole in The Food Additives Amendment of 1958, which has allowed food ingredients to bypass Food and Drug Administration review as long as they are “Generally Recognized as Safe.” A half century later, hundreds, even thousands, of uncommon chemicals with unpronounceable names have been added to our food without FDA oversight. The loophole would be better known as “Generally Recognized as Secret.”