The food we eat should be nourishing and safe. But thousands of chemicals, some of which may be toxic, are allowed in a wide range of products, such as snacks, bread and more.
For too long, the Food and Drug Administration has allowed chemical companies to self-declare their chemicals safe for use in food.
Earlier this year, the FDA finally took a step in the right direction by banning Red Dye No. 3 from use in food. But that’s just the start. Many other toxic chemicals can still be added to food and food packaging, and the FDA should move swiftly to ban them.
If Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is committed to his pledge of “making America healthy again,” here are 14 actions he can take to make that goal a reality – banning 13 harmful food chemicals and closing a regulatory loophole allowing companies to claim their chemicals are safe.
Priority candidates for FDA bans
Concerning substances remain in food sold throughout the U.S. Here are 13 chemicals added to food and food packaging that the FDA should immediately ban.
PFAS
The toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS increase the risk of cancer and heart disease, but the FDA still allows some uses of PFAS in food manufacturing and cookware. The FDA first understood the risks posed by PFAS in food in the 1960s. EWG and others filed a petition in 2021 asking it to ban these uses, but the agency has yet to respond.
In 2024, the FDA said it was considering a ban on food uses of the PFAS chemical fluorinated polyethylene, but so far it has declined to act.
BPA
As with PFAS, the harms of bisphenol A, better known as BPA, are well documented, leading other nations to ban its use in food packaging. BPA can harm the immune and reproductive systems at levels far below those currently allowed by the FDA.
A petition asking the FDA to ban BPA, filed by EWG and others, has been pending since 2022.
TCE and three other solvents
The Environmental Protection Agency just banned all uses of the solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE, citing harms ranging from cancer to fetal heart defects. But the FDA continues to allow the use of TCE and the solvents benzene, methylene chloride and ethylene chloride in the production of decaffeinated coffee, spices and hops for beer.
The National Toxicology Program says these chemicals cause cancer in animals. Petitions filed by EWG and others asking the FDA to ban these solvents in food have been pending since early 2024.
BHA and BHT
The FDA has doubted the safety of butylated hydroxyanisole, or BHA, since 1978. In 1990, a doctor petitioned the FDA to ban the chemical from use in food, citing its link to cancer. Thirty-four years later, the agency is still considering whether to go ahead with a ban.
Since the 1970s, the case for a ban has grown stronger, including in the National Toxicology Program’s 2021 conclusion that BHA is “reasonably anticipated to be a carcinogen.”
Despite its own science, the petition and the 2021 report, the FDA continues to consider BHA to be “generally recognized as safe.”
Like BHA, butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, has been linked to serious health harms, including damage to the hormone system. But the FDA keeps insisting both chemicals are safe.
Titanium dioxide
Food companies in the European Union were no longer allowed to use titanium dioxide once scientists warned it could build up in the body and damage DNA. But the FDA keeps insisting it’s safe in food.
A petition filed by EWG and others asking the agency to ban the chemical has been pending since 2023.
Propyl paraben and potassium bromate
California, China and the EU have all banned food uses of propyl paraben, a preservative, and potassium bromate, a leavening agent. Propyl paraben has been linked to harms to the reproductive and hormone systems, and potassium bromate has been linked to cancer.
While the FDA added both chemicals to a list for a fresh review, it has made no progress.
Perchlorate
An anti-static agent used in food packaging, perchlorate blocks the thyroid from absorbing iodide. Children and the developing fetus are most vulnerable to harm from perchlorate, because their brains are still developing, and their bodies are sensitive to small changes in iodide levels.
In 2022, a court upheld the FDA’s decision to reject a petition filed by EWG and others asking it to ban the chemical’s use. Since then, new data has shown the harms of perchlorate in food packaging.
Phthalates
Public health advocates first asked the FDA in 2016 to ban the use of phthalates in food packaging. They cited decades of scientific evidence linking phthalates to birth defects, infertility, preterm birth, damage to children’s brain development, and other serious health harms. The FDA failed to respond for six years, and in the end rejected the coalition’s demand to reevaluate phthalate safety.
After years of inaction, in 2021 public health advocates sued the FDA, forcing it to respond. In 2022, the agency denied the petition and upheld its decision in late 2024. So these hormone-distrupting chemicals remain permitted to leach into our food.
Action on other chemicals
Now that the FDA has banned Red 3 from food, the agency should move quickly to ban these chemicals and reconsider others linked to health harms, including concerning synthetic sweeteners such as aspartame.
The FDA should also immediately ban sodium benzoate in food that also includes vitamin C, citric acid or ascorbic acid – a combination that can create cancer-causing benzene.
And the FDA should work with the Department of Agriculture to end the use of synthetic colors in food, as California, Virginia and West Virginia have done.
Evading safety review
For decades, the FDA has allowed chemical companies to decide whether most food chemicals are safe. EWG recently found nearly 99 percent of food chemicals developed since 2000 were reviewed for safety by industry scientists, not the FDA.
In the rare instances when the FDA reviews chemicals for safety before they enter the market, the agency often does not review old decisions, even in light of new research. It hasn’t reviewed the safety of potassium bromate and propyl paraben in almost half a century.
The EPA must review some chemicals, such as pesticides, every 15 years. But the FDA doesn’t face a similar requirement for substances added to food. So most chemicals people consume every day – in a host of foods and beverages – have not been reviewed for safety for decades, if ever. The FDA has pledged to conduct more “post market” reviews of chemicals used in food and collected comments on this plan until earlier this year.
Some states aren’t waiting for the FDA to act. California enacted not only its 2023 law banning four chemicals from all foods sold in the state but also its 2024 law banning six toxic dyes from food served in the state’s public schools. Since 2024, many other states have also introduced bills to ban toxic chemicals in food.
Close the GRAS loophole
The GRAS loophole puts public health at risk by leaving the responsibility of food safety to manufacturers. To protect the safety of our food supply, the FDA must close it. Some in Congress are already working toward that goal.
Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) introduced the Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act in 2023. If enacted, it would require food manufacturers to inform the FDA of new GRAS designations. The bill would also ban conflict of interests among experts conducting safety evaluations, prohibit novel substances from claiming GRAS status, and require the FDA to assess certain GRAS substances for safety.
A recent HHS announcement on reviewing the GRAS system falls short of what’s needed. It simply pledges to “take steps to explore” changing a system that has been broken for more than 60 years – that’s not the change consumers rightly expect.
The FDA should take real action to put itself in charge of food chemical safety. Until it does, this announcement is best seen as a “plan to plan,” not real progress toward making food safer.
What you can do
In the meantime, if you want to lower your intake of harmful food ingredients, you can:
- Consult EWG’s Food Scores database to find products made without toxic food chemicals such as those state bills are targeting.
- On the go, check EWG’s Healthy Living app for products free from problematic substances.
- When possible and affordable, limit your intake of ultra-processed foods. Many contain concerning ingredients.
- Choose packaged foods that are certified organic, whenever possible. These products must meet strong standards that protect consumers from exposure to potentially harmful additives.
