North Cook News

WASHIGNTON – On June 7, U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), a Chief Deputy Whip and Ranking Member of the Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) reintroduced the Food Chemical Reassessment Act of 2023, which would create an Office of Food Safety Assessment within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure that chemicals that have entered the food supply chain through loopholes or that were reviewed by the FDA decades ago are safe to eat.

"Last year’s baby formula shortage was in part the result of severe gaps and blind spots across the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) human foods program. We owe it to consumers to close these gaps – they deserve to know that the foods they are eating are safe,” said Congresswoman Schakowsky. "That is why I am proud to reintroduce the Food Chemical Reassessment Act of 2023 with my colleague, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, which would require the FDA to consistently assess the chemicals that are added to our food. It’s time to put the ‘F’ back in the FDA, and this bill is an important step in ensuring the foods we eat are safe and free from harmful chemicals."

“Food safety is a second-class citizen at the Food and Drug Administration. An Office of Food Safety Reassessment is desperately needed, particularly as we face ongoing food safety challenges due to corporate negligence and dysfunction at the FDA,” said Congresswoman DeLauro. “That’s why I am proud to join my colleague Congresswoman Schakowsky in introducing the Food Chemical Reassessment Act, which would improve food safety by requiring the FDA to consistently assess the chemicals that are added to foods. Currently, the FDA has not regulated more than 10,000 chemicals added to our food. It is time to give FDA the tools to carry out its mission of protecting public health and ensuring the food we eat is safe for consumption.”

“No one has done more to protect consumers from harmful chemicals in food than Congresswoman Schakowsky,” said Scott Faber, EWG’s Senior Vice President of Government Affairs. “For too long, FDA has let the chemical companies decide whether food chemicals are safe to eat. We applaud Congresswoman Schakowsky for making the safety of food chemicals a priority.”

“Decades of lax federal regulation have allowed chemicals linked to cancer, reproductive problems and hormone disruption to be used in food packaging and processing, and they end up in the food we eat,” said Lisette van Vliet, Senior Policy Manager at Breast Cancer Prevention Partners. “We applaud Rep. Schakowsky for her leadership on this bill which creates an FDA review system with sorely needed deadlines and priorities to start getting toxic chemicals out of our food.”

Currently, there are thousands of chemicals added to food to make it last longer, taste better, and look more enticing. Yet, most of these chemicals have never been reviewed by the FDA or were reviewed decades ago. Instead, these chemicals have entered our food supply through a loophole – called the GRAS, or "generally recognized as safe," loophole – that Congress intended to apply to clearly safe ingredients like vinegar. Since this loophole was first proposed in 1997, food companies have added new substances to the food supply with almost no federal oversight.

The bill would create an "Office of Food Safety Reassessment" at the FDA to study every three years the safety of at least ten chemicals added to our nation's food or food packaging, starting with: Tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), titanium dioxide, potassium bromate, perchlorate, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), brominated vegetable oil (BVO), propyl paraben, sodium nitrite, and sulfuric acid. The bill would also re-establish a Food Advisory Council to advise the FDA on the best methods to review the safety of food chemicals.

The Food Chemical Reassessment Act of 2023 is endorsed by Environmental Working Group, Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, Food & Water Watch, Mamavation, Center for Environmental Health, PIRG, and Earthjustice.

Original source can be found here.