Americans are worried about the chemicals in their food, and some politicians are expressing the same concerns. In January, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asserted that the food supply is “poisoning” people, while Dr. Marty Makary, the new Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said during his Senate hearing in early March that chemical additives in food are “drugging our nation’s children at scale.” He promised to “look at” chemicals as causes for inflammation and disease. Just 150 years ago, most food came from local farms and markets down the road from people’s homes. Today, it materializes from thousands of miles away, filled with cryptic, unpronounceable ingredients, many of them chemicals. Research points to potential consequences. “There is extensive evidence that synthetic chemicals, unintentionally and intentionally added to food, contribute to chronic disease across the lifespan,” says Dr. Leonardo Trasande, professor of pediatrics at NYU School of Medicine. He and other experts want people to know the risks of chemicals in food and what to do about them. Why are there so many chemicals in our food supply? Companies can add risky chemicals to food without independent tests to find out if they’re safe for consumption. It’s done without FDA approval through a loophole in federal regulations called the Generally Recognized As Safe exemption, or GRAS.
