‘FRESH’ and Affordable Foods Act is Rotten to the Core

WASHINGTON – Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) today introduced a draft bill that would, if enacted, further hobble an already broken system that allows scores of food chemicals to come onto the market with little government oversight.

The bill would gut rules on the information companies must provide the Food and Drug Administration when submitting a notice that a food chemical is “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS.

Known as the FDA Review and Evaluation for Safe, Healthy and Affordable Foods, or FRESH and Affordable Foods Act, the bill would:

• Preempt, retroactively and prospectively, all state food chemical laws, including those banning the toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS from food packaging and artificial dyes from school food.
• Allow new food chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive harm to be considered “safe.”
• Allow new food chemicals to be added to food without an affirmative finding of safety by the FDA.