Food and Drug Admin Petition to Limit Refined Carbohydrates

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Kessler Citizen Petition Addresses Refined Carbohydrates

by: Food and Drug Law at Keller and Heckman of Keller and Heckman LLP - The Daily Intake

Monday, August 25, 2025

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On August 6, 2025, Former Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), David Kessler, submitted a citizen petition calling on FDA to limit refined carbohydrates used in industrial food processing to prevent obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and requested the agency take various actions, including revoking the GRAS designations of these ingredients.
The petition focuses on 1) refined sweeteners (i.e., corn syrup, corn solids, glucose syrups, dextrose, invert sugar, xylose, maltose, and high fructose corn syrups) and maltodextrin; 2) refined flour and starches subjected to food extrusion technology (i.e., wheat, corn, tapioca, oat and potato flour, and starches that are processed by extraction or similar technologies); and 3) sucrose, refined flours, or starches that are used with emulsifiers (e.g., mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, DATEM, sodium stearoyl lactylate, polysorbates); dough conditioners and strengtheners (e.g., azodicarbonamide, L-cysteine, calcium peroxide); humectants (e.g., propylene glycol); stabilizers and gums (e.g., carboxymethylcellulose, methylcellulose); or modified starches and fillers (e.g., regelatinized starch, modified food starch, dextrins).
The petition makes a dubious distinction in the use of these ingredients, noting “This petition focuses on reﬁned carbohydrates used in industrial food processing … not in home cooking.”
The petition claims that refined carbohydrates put people at risk for increased caloric intake, weight gain, fat accumulation in the liver, pancreas, skeletal muscle and heart, and metabolic abnormalities, leading to various chronic diseases.
The requested actions in the petition include the following:
- Stop considering processed refined carbohydrates identified in the petition to be GRAS.
- Promptly initiate proceedings to revoke any existing GRAS regulation for processed refined carbs used in industrial food processing.
- Require companies seeking to continue using the ingredients to notify FDA within 12 months of their intent to file a food additive petition, and to file such petition within 24 months.
- With revocation of GRAS status, announce that the ingredients are legally classified as food additives and that absent a regulation allowing for their safe use, it is illegal to continue using them.
- Remove the products from commerce unless they are eventually covered by a food additive petition.
- Work with industry to reduce the use of processed refined carbs as quickly as possible.
The petition cites FDA’s approach to partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) in 2015, when it revoked their GRAS status, prompting the submission of a food additive petition that was ultimately denied. However, the same scientific consensus and legal standards with respect to PHO’s have not been achieved here.