US considering petition to review safety of processed food ingredients

The Food and Drug Administration will consider a petition to revoke the safety status of dozens of processed refined carbohydrates unless food companies can prove they are safe and not contributing to health issues and obesity, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in remarks that aired on Sunday.

He said the FDA would take up a request by former agency Commissioner David Kessler, who asked it last August to remove corn syrup and dozens of other sweeteners and starches from the list of ingredients classified as GRAS, or Generally Recognized as Safe.

"We will act on David Kessler's petition," Kennedy told CBS' "60 Minutes" program. "And the questions that he's asking are questions that FDA should've been asking a long, long time ago."

Kennedy and Kessler say the GRAS classification, enacted by Congress in 1958, has allowed the use of ingredients without a full government safety review because it lets food companies verify the safety of those items without oversight. Kennedy said that he intends to close that loophole if he gets White House approval.

"There is no way for any American to know if a product is safe if it is ultraprocessed," Kennedy said on "60 Minutes."

Food companies already "adhere to the FDA's science and risk-based evaluation of ingredients in the food supply," said the Consumer Brands Association, a trade group, in a statement.

"The GRAS process plays an important role in enabling companies to innovate to meet consumer demand ... We stand ready to work with HHS and FDA as they look to revise GRAS to continue to ensure the analysis of safe ingredients and increase consumer transparency," the group said.

Kessler, a pediatrician, was FDA commissioner from 1990 to 1997.

During his tenure heading the FDA, Kessler tried to regulate tobacco under the agency. The effort ultimately failed, but it helped put a greater spotlight on the tobacco industry.

He now wants the FDA to take the same approach with large food companies.

"We changed how this country views tobacco," Kessler told the CBS program. "We need to change how this country views these ultraprocessed foods."

Kennedy's campaign against processed foods and artificial dyes has been one of his most high-profile endeavors in office. The Trump administration last month announced new dietary guidelines that urge Americans to eat more protein and less sugar than previously advised, while avoiding highly processed foods.

But on Sunday's show, Kennedy stopped short of saying he would call for more government regulations.

"I'm not saying that we're going to regulate ultraprocessed food," he said. "Our job is to make sure that everybody understands what they're getting, to have an informed public."

-Reporting by Michelle Conlin in New York; Editing by Sergio Non, Alistair Bell and Thomas Derpinghaus/Reuters