Private Companies Decide Food Safety
Ever wondered who makes the decisions on which foods are classified as safe to consume? In thousands of cases, private industries may have made the calls on which ingredients are safe without federal scrutiny, a new report finds.
The peer-reviewed report published in the Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety journal relies on research funded by the Pew Health Group, the health and consumer safety branch of the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts. The group is looking to make the food safety process more transparent, and make data on the health impact of certain foods publicly available. In many cases, they say, the FDA has not reviewed this data.
The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requires manufacturers to make sure food ingredients are safe. Companies can classify an ingredient as “generally recognized as safe” for use in a specific product but aren’t required to tell the Food and Drug Administration about what they find.
Do you think food safety needs to be more transparent?