Companies making ingredients such as vinegar and cooking oil didn’t have to test them as long as the scientific community agreed they were “generally recognized as safe” or have been used for a long time without problems. The rest would be food additives [with] their safety determined by FDA.

It was clear that the safety standard is the same for GRAS substances and food additives: scientists should be reasonably certain that the lifetime exposure to the chemical will cause no harm. The difference is who makes the safety decision. FDA decides whether a food additive is safe; companies decide whether a substance is GRAS. FDA interpreted the law to say that the GRAS exemption permits a company to make a GRAS decision and not tell the agency. This means that a company can develop a chemical, determine that it is GRAS, and use it in food without FDA or the public having any idea about its presence. We estimated that there are at least 1,000 GRAS chemicals unknown to FDA.

Making lunch and dinner from scratch would be a way to limit exposure to food additives. Taking a closer look at the labels may help, but even I find myself lost in a sea of unpronounceable words. Besides, chemicals that get into the food from packaging will never show up in a label.

We, as consumers, should not be responsible for deciding what’s safe to eat. The food companies will work to strengthen to do its job.