US health regulators to consider safety status of processed ingredients

The Food and Drug Administration will consider a petition to revoke the safety status of dozens of processed refined carbohydrates unless food companies can prove they are safe and not contributing to health issues and obesity, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in remarks that aired on Sunday.



He said the FDA would take up a request by former agency Commissioner David Kessler, who asked it last August to remove corn syrup and dozens of other sweeteners and starches from the list of ingredients classified as GRAS, or Generally Recognized as Safe.



"We will act on David Kessler's petition," Kennedy told CBS' "60 Minutes" program. "And the questions that he's asking are questions that FDA should've been asking a long, long time ago."



Kennedy and Kessler say the GRAS classification, enacted by Congress in 1958, has allowed the use of ingredients without a full government safety review because it lets food companies verify the safety of those items without oversight. Kennedy said that he intends to close that loophole if he gets White House approval.