It’s time to revamp the FDA’s “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS, program that allows companies to add untested ingredients to food, the Health and Human Services secretary says. That may be difficult to do.

U.S. secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has directed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to revise its Substances Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) Final Rule in an effort to increase oversight of specific food ingredients and heighten food transparency.

The Health Secretary wants to eliminate a provision that allows companies to self-affirm that food ingredients are safe.

Activists have slammed the GRAS program, arguing it allows companies to "self-certify" the safety of food additives.

The Health and Human Services secretary is pushing to change a program that allows companies to add untested ingredients to food.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered the Food and Drug Administration on Monday to revise its rule allowing food companies to "self-affirm" that its ingredients are safe.

The practice Kennedy is targeting, known as “generally recognized as safe,” can occur when companies self-certify the safety of a food additive.

President Trump's top health official wants to overhaul how companies introduce ingredients into the food supply, a move that could alter a decades-old system and address criticism over insufficient oversight.

The ‘Generally Recognized As Safe’ process apparently would continue – if only for a while – but would require FDA notification.

The nation's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is taking steps to tighten oversight of chemicals in the U.S. food supply, a key component of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. On March 10,

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. directed the Food and Drug Administration on Monday to revise safety rules to help eliminate a provision that allows companies to self-affirm that food ingredients are safe.