FDA may allow some toxic chemicals to be added to food without safety review. Experts are alarmed
Regulator looks to expand loophole to allow dangerous compounds in food as long as they’re not carcinogenic
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing to expand a controversial loophole to allow some of the world’s most toxic chemicals to be added directly to food without a safety review.
The “threshold of regulation” (TOR) exemption currently allows dangerous compounds to be used without review in food contact materials, such as packaging or processing equipment, if they are not carcinogenic, and are added at levels below 0.5 parts per billion (ppb).
But campaigners say many chemicals, especially hormone disruptors linked to brain damage and reproductive harm in children, are considered dangerous at levels far below 0.5ppb. Even in its limited form, the loophole has already raised alarm. One TOR exemption that allows the rocket fuel chemical perchlorate to be used in grain bags dramatically increased the amount of the compound found in kids’ cereal, which advocates say could cause brain damage.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/10/fda-toxic-chemicals-food-analysisOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
48 replies
Trust the woowoo people to have 0 consistency and even less math.
Clearly aren't believers in homeopathy. Unless they're thinking that more has less effect...
Minuscule amounts of toxic materials can evade the immune system & bio-accumulate to ill effect
Pretty soon the FDA will just grind "food" into white powder that can be snorted from toilet seats...for safety.
Same motherfuckers who bitched about fluoride in water are gonna be perfectly fine with this.
America under every republican administration(also some neo-con democrats not trying to dismiss) have always prioritized business over voters.
Fuck Reagan.
Over turn citize United
Release the Epstein files
Hang all the traitors.
Ds do just enough to not have people rioting, and not enough where the Ds dont have any political capital for the next elections.
Why would you need to use perchlorate in a grain bag?
Search says it's an anti-static agent.
Thanks. I couldn’t find anything when I searched. I doubt this is the only chemical they could use for that. It’s always about money — like what’s cheapest, or what’s subsidized. Sad sad sad.
Kids get some cancer, so shareholders can get more money. Equivalent exchange or whatever.
Was the fall of Rome this quick?
Which one? Rome fell like five times before it was finally killed. The western Roman Empire, The Kingdom of the Romans in France, The Fourth Crusade, The Fall of Constantinople, and the conquest of Trebizond. Most of these were pretty quick and roughly comparable to the US if you start with Reagan.
Start with Reagan and we're at what point in history by comparison?
should really be nixon if you want to be accurate
Either crises of the third century or the reign of Romulus Augustulus before Italy was conquered. It's very much a reform or fall type of situation.
They have AI to help this time.
So it'll happen faster then
Make America Hospitalized Again
Seems like the plan. Keep Americans in debt
Read as: we’re already doing this and this is how we let you know
Those of us who are not american can read this. And you folks get angry when our governments, food organisations and consumers refuse to buy your food exports.
Nope, never angry about that. Jealous, but not angry.
The only people that are angry about that are the idiots and supporters to those idiots. Any rational person understands, and many of us support the decision with gumption.
Pundits and politicians sometimes make a fuss. Maybe some massively rich agribusiness jackasses are annoyed. I don't think very many real people get angry.
You might say that this outrage is one of our inorganic exports.
Those of us that are paying attention, totally get it - I wouldn’t want to buy our gross food either!
toxic chemicals, it's what plants crave.
Having 1 food item per week turn out to be toxic/dangerous in some way is rookie numbers--soon enough we'll have daily food advisory warnings! You'll never eat safely again! 🥹
Damn, if I were living in the US, I'd start to seriously consider growing my own food, perhaps together with friends and family. It's getting worse and worse.
What the fuck even is America
The US has been allowing toxic chemicals in food for decades that aren't legal in most of the world. Reading ingredient lists of US products is fucking horrifying, it absolutely has a major effect of most of the US population.
Better to replace the scary words with E numbers, that makes them safe!
Things like lemon acid also has an E number. This lead to the conspiracy theory claiming lemon acid is a nazi invention, not made from lemons, and is named as such to both fool people believing it's natural and that lemon doesn't have "alkalizing" properties. Others just think higher E number equals more dangerous.
But MAHA though right?
They wouldn't want kids to have brain damage because then they would grow to be republicans - if they survived to adulthood I mean, without any vaccines.
Do they think they are somehow exempt from toxic food?
Or is it that MAGA endtime brainworm yet again?
Rich people can afford to purchase the expensive shit. Only the cheap shit uses the worst possible, most cost effective way to supply the sense of having eaten.
they can just go/live in EU/canada for thier shit, american ones gets too bad or just use luxury brands.
Republican eugenics.
he will allow parasites to be acceptable in food soon.
And that's supposed to make America healthy again?
It should be a rule that cabinet members of the government and leadership of oversight agencies are obligated to partake in the products. If they don't, they lose their job.
This pic of RFK jr looks like some huckster trying to sell you a timeshare.
What is a little brain damage among friends, I guess?
freshly out of a TANning booth coffin too.
This article is a weird mix of fearmongering / pseudoscience and actual real concerns. I don't like that especially because I consider the Guardian to be a pretty good source, but a lot in this article makes me doubt their journalistic integrity.
For example, they mention substances acting as fillers or binders - at 0.5 parts per billion. Anything with that little CANNOT by its very nature be a binder or filler. It would be as ridiculous as trying to say an ant on a highway was "speeding" or something like that.
Also, when they talk about companies adding compounds/flavourings to food to basically make you want to eat more. While companies do want you to enjoy the food so that you want to eat more, that has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand.
So, where are the legitimate concerns?
For one, the TOR exception has been about substances that somehow manage to get into food during the process, but are not specifically added to food. This rule change basically allows for companies to specifically know substances are being added. For example, if you didn't read the article: Bags used to store/move grain in large amounts (hundreds of pounds) have coatings so the grain doesn't stick. But during loading/unloading, very very tiny bits of the coating can get into the grain - not enough to exceed 0.5ppb, but enough to be detected, and this may have some negtive health effects. That's not new, that was already happening and this rules change doesn't affect that. But it does mean that basically more things like that might happen.
Also, the 0.5ppb science was established long enough ago that since then, we are figuring out that it may not be safe enough for all things - because longterm chemical exposure even at that tiny level can have effects, and also, some things just can have effects at even that small amount. The good news is that for most everything, that threshhold is sufficient. But the bad news is...... maybe not for everything.
But I think what concerns me more than that actual possible harm here - which is real, but not huge - is the absolute fearmongering of the article. I'm extremely disappointed by that.
I'm pregnant... yay.... toxic chems for the baby!
just make sure all of it is sent to kennedy's table
What is up with the Guardian and initialisms? "FDA," "TOR," "BASF" and "EDF" are all caps, but "generally recognized as safe" is just "Gras" now? "Maha" instead of "MAHA?" I don't get it.