The former head of the US Food and Drug Administration is testing the Trump administration’s commitment to “Make America Healthy Again” with a challenge to crack down on some of the key ingredients in ultraprocessed foods.
In a petition filed Wednesday, the former FDA commissioner, Dr. David Kessler, argued that the agency has the authority to declare that certain sweeteners, refined flours and other additives are not “generally recognized as safe.” Removing that designation, known as GRAS, would force makers of ultraprocessed foods to remove products from the market and reformulate recipes — or try to prove that those ingredients are not harmful.
It would be a sweeping change to the food industry and a significant shift in the Trump administration’s MAHA strategy. So far, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has relied on popular food brands to volunteer to remove artificial dyes and other additives from their products.
“Kessler has given the FDA a way to define the vast majority of ultra-processed foods. In doing so, he has handed RFK Jr a huge gift on the path to regulating these products. It’s just what MAHA has asked for. I hope they take it seriously,” Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, said in an email.
