17
Mar
Can FDA Step In When EPA Fails to Ensure Safety from Pesticide Mixtures in Food?
(Beyond Pesticides, March 17, 2025) When Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced last week that he is directing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to explore rulemaking to review substances in food affirmed by the food companies to be Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS), he said he is “committed to promoting radical transparency to make sure all Americans know what is in their food.” The issue of independent review of the food industry’s GRAS declarations has long been the subject of critiques raising public health concerns. As this issue emerged, on another food safety issue, Beyond Pesticides is asking FDA to use its broad authority under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to “ensur(e) that human foods and animal feeds are safe” from residues of pesticide mixtures, in light of new troubling scientific data. Under various memoranda of understanding between FDA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) going back decades, FDA could consult with EPA on food safety issues ignored by the agency, including  recent data published in Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology, which “suggest that combined [pesticide] exposure may further amplify the toxicity and compromise the intestinal […]
