{"id":37952,"date":"2025-03-17T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T04:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=37952"},"modified":"2025-03-17T11:00:52","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T15:00:52","slug":"can-fda-step-in-when-epa-fails-to-ensure-safety-from-pesticide-mixtures-in-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2025\/03\/can-fda-step-in-when-epa-fails-to-ensure-safety-from-pesticide-mixtures-in-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Can FDA Step In When EPA Fails to Ensure Safety from Pesticide Mixtures in Food?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, March 17, 2025) When Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced last week<\/a> 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 \u201ccommitted to promoting radical transparency to make sure all Americans know what is in their food.\u201d The issue of independent review of the food industry\u2019s 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\u00a0 FDA to use its broad authority under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act<\/em> to \u201censur(e) that human foods and animal feeds are safe\u201d from residues of pesticide mixtures, in light of new troubling scientific data.<\/p>\r\n

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 \u00a0recent data published in\u00a0<\/span>Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology<\/span><\/i><\/a>, which \u201csuggest that combined [pesticide] exposure may further amplify the toxicity and compromise the intestinal barrier.\u201d Where EPA fails to consider exposure to mixtures of pesticides in people\u2019s diet, Beyond Pesticides sees a role for FDA to recommend regulatory action.<\/p>\r\n

>> Tell Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to instruct FDA to recommend tolerances for mixtures of pesticides.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0
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\r\nOn the GRAS concern, Beyond Pesticides raised the issue when telling the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) that it could not, by law, allow GRAS substances without a thorough independent review. Beyond Pesticides, whose executive director served on the NOSB, cited a comprehensive review<\/a> (2011) of the U.S. food additive regulatory program, which found that 60% of food safety decisions allowing substances in food are made by manufacturers and a trade association: \u201cOverall, federal agencies made approximately 40% of the 6000 safety decisions allowing substances in human00pm food. These decisions allowed an estimated 66% of the substances currently believed to be used in food. Manufacturers and a trade association made the remaining decisions without FDA review by concluding that the substances were generally recognized as safe (GRAS).\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) reported on FDA\u2019s regulation of food additives, particularly GRAS items in its report, Food Safety: FDA Should Strengthen Its Oversight of Food Ingredients Determined to Be Generally Recognized as Safety<\/a> (2010). The GAO found:<\/p>\r\n