New policy stops short of closing GRAS loophole but would still add oversight of previously unknown chemicals used in food
By Isabella Cueto and Elizabeth Cooney
Aug. 10, 2026
WASHINGTON — The Department of Health and Human Services on Monday announced a new effort to catalog the many additives in the U.S. food supply, most of which entered with little oversight.
Companies looking to add a new substance to human or animal foods will need to notify the Food and Drug Administration, and provide details on how they deemed the additive “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS. Manufacturers with GRAS substances already on the market would need to let the FDA know for the first time how the additive is used — information that would be made public in a database, HHS officials said.
While companies would not need to prove existing additives are safe, something advocates have long pushed for, their notices would give the FDA a clearer log of the many chemicals Americans ingest through their food every day. Agency staff and outside researchers could then begin to understand which ones are harmful to human health.