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Mar 16, 2025

These Food Additives in Your US Food Are Banned in Europe—See the List - Newsweek

Anna Skinner is a Newsweek senior reporter based in Indianapolis. Her focus is reporting on the climate, environment and weather but she also reports on other topics for the National News Team. She

Anna Skinner is a Newsweek senior reporter based in Indianapolis. Her focus is reporting on the climate, environment and weather but she also reports on other topics for the National News Team. She has covered climate change and natural disasters extensively. Anna joined Newsweek in 2022 from Current Publishing, a local weekly central Indiana newspaper where she worked as a managing editor. She was a 2021 finalist for the Indy's Best & Brightest award in the media, entertainment and sports category. You can get in touch with Anna by emailing [email protected]. Languages: English.

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to explore revising the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) rule.

The announcement comes as Kennedy has touted the effectiveness of a healthy diet in mitigating disease in humans. Many food additives legal in the U.S. have been banned in other countries, including those in Europe. This has raised the concerns of Americans about what ingredients are in their food.

If manufacturers intentionally add food additives to their product, the ingredient is "subject to premarket review and approval by FDA." However, manufacturers can bypass this step if the ingredient is "generally recognized, among qualified experts, as having been adequately shown to be safe under the conditions of its intended use," according to the FDA website.

If GRAS is eliminated, it will "enhance the FDA's oversight of ingredients" included in American food, the HHS press release said.

Many food additives used by manufacturers are legal in the U.S. but banned in Europe. Common additives include:

Red Dye No. 3 was a big one as well, until the FDA banned it earlier this year.

"We don't have a comprehensive list of what chemicals are in our food because a lot of times the FDA doesn't know what's in our food," Center for Science in the Public Interest regulatory counsel Jensen Jose told Newsweek. "Often, the GRAS substance must cause harm before FDA even realizes it's on the market."

Jose added that it's "impossible" to know which ingredients to avoid.

"In the U.S., the food industry is allowed to self-determine that a substance is "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS, without FDA knowledge or review," he said. "Effectively, this means that industry, not FDA, decides whether something is safe to eat, despite the fact that the food industry has a very clear conflict of interest."

Kennedy in a statement: "For far too long, ingredient manufacturers and sponsors have exploited a loophole that has allowed new ingredients and chemicals, often with unknown safety data, to be introduced into the U.S. food supply without notification to the FDA or the public. Eliminating this loophole will provide transparency to consumers, help get our nation's food supply back on track by ensuring that ingredients being introduced into foods are safe, and ultimately Make America Healthy Again."

Acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner: "The FDA is committed to further safeguarding the food supply by ensuring the appropriate review of ingredients and substances that come into contact with food. The FDA will continue to follow our authorities and leverage our resources to protect the health of consumers to ensure that food is a vehicle for wellness."

Erik Millstone, an emeritus professor at the University of Sussex, told Newsweek: "Typically the European Food Safety Authority requires more data from more studies than does the U.S. FDA. To a good first approximation, the U.S. authorities only assess risks to average healthy adults, whereas the EU counterparts should also assess risks to more vulnerable groups such as young children, the elderly and the immunologically compromised."

Millstone added: "Another key difference is that while the US FDA allows many additives' producers to declare their compounds to be GRAS or 'Generally Recognized as Safe' and consequently as not requiring safety testing, but no such provision is available in the EU."

It is unclear what will become of FDA's GRAS program under Kennedy's direction.

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