On July 12, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a public inventory of certain food ingredients that the agency has determined to have unsafe uses in food because they are unapproved food additives and lists of select chemicals currently under the agency’s review.  To supplement, FDA released a Conversations with Experts about the agency’s work to enhance the assessment of ingredients in foods on the market.

The inventory lists food ingredients that FDA has determined, from post-market evaluations, are not GRAS.  Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act, any ingredient used or intended for use in food must be authorized by the FDA for use as a food additive unless that use is Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) by qualified experts, or meets a listed exception to the food additive definition in the FD&C Act.

The inventory includes the name of the unsafe food additive, information about some post-market activities and public communications, and the FDA’s memo that describes reviews in which the agency concluded the use of the ingredient did not meet the GRAS standard.  The post-market activities include warning letters, import alerts, seizures, and injunctions