March 16, 2025 — A regulatory detail deep within the thicket of FDA rules is getting sharp attention. This week, HHS Secretary RFK Jr. asked FDA to find a way to restrict something called GRAS. That stands for generally recognized as safe. Right now, a food company can “self certify” that a chemical food additive is GRAS. Then they […]
November 4, 2023 — It only took half a century. Back in 1970, the FDA decided that brominated vegetable oil could no longer have GRAS – generally recognized as safe – status. This week the agency announced it plans to ban this additive to many citrus flavored drinks. The long goodbye to brominated vegetable oil (BVO) will not be […]
December 3, 2021 — A new study in Gastroenterology is adding fuel to the fire of doubts about emulsifiers in processed foods. A diverse group of researchers conducted an RCT of a diet enriched with an emulsifier called carboxymethylcellulose. CMC and cellulose gum are two other names for this ingredient. Nine subjects received the control diet with no emulsifiers […]
October 2, 2018 — France has one of the lowest obesity rates in the world. But it’s growing and the French parliament knows why. Le Big Mac. Burgers outsold baguettes for the first time ever in 2017. Burgers are on the menus in 85 percent of French restaurants. They sold 1.5 billion of them last year. So naturally, when the parliament […]
