By Tom Polansek
ROSEMONT, Illinois (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans to step up safety reviews on chemicals in foods, including one widely used as a preservative in products containing fats, said Kyle Diamantas, the agency’s top food official, on Thursday.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose agency oversees the FDA, has pledged to tackle chronic illnesses by overhauling the U.S. diet. He has pushed for bans on synthetic food colors and encouraged fast-food chains to switch to beef tallow instead of seed oils for French fries.
The FDA, which has suffered mass layoffs under President Donald Trump, will update a list of chemicals that will be top priorities for reviews, said Diamantas, acting deputy commissioner for human foods.
“Historically FDA has been somewhat reactionary when it comes to reviewing chemicals in the food supply,” he said at a food safety conference outside Chicago. “The goal is to move to a proactive process to ensure that the chemicals in our food remain safe.”
The FDA will prioritize reviews of chemicals including butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT); butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA); and azodicarbonamide (ADA), Diamantas said. BHT is one of the most commonly used antioxidants in foods containing fats, according to the health department.
The FDA plans to release a scheme for highlighting other chemicals for reviews that will be available for public feedback this month, Diamantas said. Chemicals may be assessed based on consumers’ concerns or on other countries’ data and regulatory actions, he said.
Even as food chemicals and nutrition have received a lot of attention, Diamantas told the conference that the FDA is still committed to microbiological food safety, which is the agency’s division with the most employees and funding.
Kennedy said on Wednesday that the “central focus” of the FDA and National Institutes of Health will be on studying ultra-processed foods, sugars and food additives.
At the CDC, which also operates under Kennedy, an environmental health division endured layoffs and is no longer at the agency, said Megin Nichols, director of CDC’s division of foodborne, waterborne, and environmental diseases.
The division was critical to food safety and CDC continues to “maintain the spirit of that work,” Nichols said in a virtual appearance at the conference.
(Reporting by Tom Polansek. Additional reporting by Patrick Wingrove in New York; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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