The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched the new Human Foods Program on Oct. 1. The program will reorganize the agency to make it better at overseeing and protecting the human food supply.
Some of the changes under this program include having a systematic post-market assessment of chemicals in food, such as food and color additives, substances that are Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS), food contact substances, and unintentional food contaminants.
Many academics and lawyers in food regulation hope that this new program will lead to stricter regulation on food additives approved under the GRAS label.
The GRAS designation allows food companies to determine the safety of additives without mandatory FDA review, raising concerns about the lack of transparency and oversight of potential health risks….