FDA Ends 27-Year Loophole Allowing Food Companies to Self-Certify Ingredient Safety

The FDA announced it would close the "self-affirmed GRAS" loophole that for 27 years allowed food companies to secretly declare their own ingredients Generally Recognized As Safe without notifying the agency. Under the 1997 rule, thousands of food additives entered the U.S. food supply with no mandatory FDA review. The new rule required formal FDA notification for all new GRAS determinations, reversing a policy that ProPublica and other outlets had documented since the late 1990s.