These food additives in your US food are banned in Europe—see the list

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to explore revising the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) rule.

Why It Matters

The announcement comes as Kennedy has touted the effectiveness of a healthy diet in mitigating disease in humans. Many food additives legal in the U.S. have been banned in other countries, including those in Europe. This has raised the concerns of Americans about what ingredients are in their food.

What to Know

If manufacturers intentionally add food additives to their product, the ingredient is “subject to premarket review and approval by FDA.” However, manufacturers can bypass this step if the ingredient is “generally recognized, among qualified experts, as having been adequately shown to be safe under the conditions of its intended use,” according to the FDA website.

If GRAS is eliminated, it will “enhance the FDA’s oversight of ingredients” included in American food, the HHS press release said.

Many food additives used by manufacturers are legal in the U.S. but banned in Europe. Common additives include:

• Titanium dioxide, a whitening agent added to products like skim milk.
• Brominated vegetable oil, added to citrus drinks like Mountain Dew.
• Potassium bromate, which can strengthen bread dough.
• rBST, a hormone to increase milk production in cows.
• Artificial trans fats, which makes liquid vegetable oil more solid and shelf stable.
• Many synthetic dyes, used as food coloring.

Red Dye No. 3 was a big one as well, until the FDA banned it earlier this year.

“We don’t have a comprehensive list of what chemicals are in our food because a lot of times the FDA doesn’t know what’s in our food,” Center for Science in the Public Interest regulatory counsel Jensen Jose told Newsweek. “Often, the GRAS substance must cause harm before FDA even realizes it’s on the market.”

Jose added that it’s “impossible” to know which ingredients to avoid.

“In the U.S., the food industry is allowed to self-determine that a substance is “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS, without FDA knowledge or review,” he said. “Effectively, this means that industry, not FDA, decides whether something is safe to eat, despite the fact that the food industry has a very clear conflict of interest.”

What People Are Saying

Kennedy in a statement: “For far too long, ingredient manufacturers and sponsors have exploited a loophole that has allowed new ingredients and chemicals, often with unknown safety data, to be introduced into the U.S. food supply without notification to the FDA or the public. 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.”

Acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner: “The FDA is committed to further safeguarding the food supply by ensuring the appropriate review of ingredients and substances that come into contact with food. The FDA will continue to follow our authorities and leverage our resources to protect the health of consumers to ensure that food is a vehicle for wellness.”

Erik Millstone, an emeritus professor at the University of Sussex, told Newsweek: “Typically the European Food Safety Authority requires more data from more studies than does the U.S. FDA. To a good first approximation, the U.S. authorities only assess risks to average healthy adults, whereas the EU counterparts should also assess risks to more vulnerable groups such as young children, the elderly and the immunologically compromised.”

Millstone added: “Another key difference is that while the US FDA allows many additives’ producers to declare their compounds to be GRAS or ‘Generally Recognized as Safe’ and consequently as not requiring safety testing, but no such provision is available in the EU.”

What Happens Next

It is unclear what will become of FDA’s GRAS program under Kennedy’s direction.