RFK Jr. Announces Major Initiative to ELIMINATE Harmful Chemicals In U.S. Food Supply

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has just announced that he is ordering the FDA to end a controversial loophole that allows food companies to sneak in harmful chemicals.

The loophole is known as the ‘Generally Recognized as Safe’ (GRAS) designation. Essentially, it allows food companies to “self-affirm” whether ingredients are safe to use.

The original intention of the rule was for companies to be able to use ingredients like baking soda and salt in their food without having to seek approval. However, in modern times, companies use the GRAS rule to add potential dangerous ingredients, like titanium dioxide, to our food — without any oversight.

In a video posted on X, RFK Jr. says that he is directing the FDA to start the process towards ending the GRAS pathway, as well as ramp up efforts to test the chemicals currently used in our food.

Watch RFK Jr.’s announcement here for yourself:

I am directing the FDA commissioner to start the process of changing the rules to eliminate the self-affirmed GRAS pathway for new ingredients. I am also calling on the @US_FDA and @NIH continue to conduct and improve post-market assessments of GRAS chemicals currently in our… pic.twitter.com/BWvunk6lpw

— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) March 13, 2025

For those who prefer to read, here’s a full transcript of the video:

In the final months of the election, President Trump repeatedly called for removing toxins from our food supply. He added his voice to the millions of MAHA moms who were touting the Make America Healthy Again agenda.

The first step is radical transparency because, right now, not even the U.S. government knows what’s in our food. In 1958, the government created a designation called Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) so that common ingredients like salt and baking soda could be exempt from testing.

But today, it isn’t just salt and baking soda. Food companies and cooperative regulators have expanded the GRAS exemption, allowing these companies to decide for themselves whether a substance is generally recognized as safe. No FDA approval is needed.

European nations, on the other hand, require that a chemical be proven safe before it becomes a food ingredient. In our country, the GRAS standard means that every chemical is presumed safe until proven dangerous. That proof might not come until millions of Americans are suffering from chronic disease. This mass experiment on the American population with GRAS has, in short, been a catastrophe.

We now have around 10,000 chemicals in our food. Europe has only 400.

For example, titanium dioxide—potentially linked to DNA damage and cancer—is banned in the EU, but it’s in our children’s food. Potassium bromate, a suspected carcinogen, is banned in Europe and Japan. You guessed it—it’s in our children’s bread.

Food dyes such as Red Dye 40 and Yellow 5 and 6 come with warning labels in Europe. They’re linked to behavioral issues in children. But in the U.S., they are generally recognized as safe.

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We can’t really blame the food companies. They’re just doing what we’ve allowed them to get away with in a system that has taken on a life of its own. We all agree now that it’s time to change the system—and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

Today, I am directing the FDA Commissioner to start the process of changing the rules to eliminate the self-affirming GRAS pathway for new ingredients. I am also directing the FDA and NIH to ramp up post-market assessments of GRAS chemicals currently in our food so that we can rapidly identify the compounds making Americans sick and so that consumers and regulators can make informed decisions.

This issue isn’t going away. Moms aren’t going to go back to wanting chemicals in our food that are banned in other developed countries. Even the industry knows that we have to change.

So, I promise you, I am going to work with all parties—the companies, the moms, and the scientists—to make American food the healthiest in the world, just as it was when I was a child.

Food Dive provided some more details about the GRAS rule:

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is looking to end provisions that have allowed the food industry to “self affirm” whether new ingredients are safe for consumption in a move that would overhaul the way companies receive regulatory approval for additives.

Kennedy on Monday directed the Food and Drug Administration to explore potential rulemaking that would revise the Substances Generally Recognized as Safe rule, which allows food manufacturers to bypass premarket review on certain chemicals or additives if they are considered safe among qualified experts.

Companies have two pathways to achieve GRAS status. While companies can petition the FDA to review an ingredient and grant it GRAS status, they also can “self-affirm” that their products are safe based on the conclusion of a scientific expert panel.

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The health secretary called out the self-affirmed pathway to regulatory approval, saying manufacturers have “exploited a loophole” to allow new chemicals into the food supply “often with unknown safety data.”

“Eliminating this loophole will provide transparency to consumers, help get our nation’s food supply back on track by ensuring that ingredients being introduced into foods are safe, and ultimately Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy said in a statement.

In addition to potential rulemaking, the federal health department is working with Congress to explore potential legislation on GRAS. In the meantime, the FDA could begin exercising greater scrutiny on self-affirming GRAS determinations, according to law firm Akin.

What do you think?

Do you support RFK Jr.’s initiative to keep toxins out of your food by ending this loophole?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

🚨 Big Food is NOT ready for this. RFK Jr. is about to BAN THOUSANDS of toxic food additives

For decades, corporations have used the GRAS loophole (Generally Recognized as Safe) to approve their own chemicals—with ZERO real oversight.

⚠️ Artificial sweeteners (aspartame,… pic.twitter.com/poxklJT8Kb

— Lauren Lee (@sheislaurenlee) March 11, 2025