"At least 111 substances of unknown safety have been added to foods, drinks and supplements sold in the United States without alerting the US Food and Drug Administration, a new investigation found.
“Food companies are deciding on their own to secretly add unreviewed chemical ingredients to products instead of following existing federal guidelines meant to assure food is ‘generally recognized as safe,’ or GRAS,” said Melanie Benesh, vice president for government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, a health and environmental health advocacy organization that conducted the investigation published Tuesday.
To meet the GRAS standard, companies must demonstrate a new food ingredient is safe by providing widely accepted scientific evidence that’s publicly available. Notifying the FDA of that safety data is customary and ensures regulatory compliance. It’s also voluntary — which means manufacturers can legally self-determine their products to be safe.
“Manufacturers now routinely exploit this GRAS loophole — it’s fast becoming more ‘generally recognized as secret’ instead of ‘generally recognized as safe,’” Benesh said."
