As part of his “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has chalked up several important wins with major food companies agreeing to remove certain additives and ingredients.
But Kennedy is also pushing for governmental reforms, including a fresh policy he unveiled this week to modernize the oversight of those ingredients.
According to Breitbart:
Kennedy brought Americans back to the day that he and President Donald Trump promised to make America healthy again and “transform our food systems and confront one of the most powerful drivers of America’s chronic disease crisis.”
“Almost exactly two years later, we’re here celebrating the most transformative 18 months of food reform in modern American history. And today we’re taking two more historic steps to deliver on that promise that we made two years ago,” Kennedy said, announcing the proposal of a rule that would require manufacturers “to notify the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) when concluding that the use of a substance added to human or animal food is Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS).” HHS, along with the Department of Agriculture, is also submitting the government’s final definition of ultra-processed foods.
“We’re proposing a rule that would end the practice of companies making GRAS determinations without notifying the FDA, the proposal will give the agency greater visibility into the substances that are entering our food supply,” he said.
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His remarks attracted some social media attention:
Oh wow, people will really support untested chemicals in their food because of politics? Ya'll know hes talking about closing the gras loophole right? Next youll be jumping in line to have your organs harvested while youre still alive because jr said its wrong.
— Carol Allison (@CarolAllis91931) August 10, 2026
How is that not a serious crime?
— Charlie Brown (@CharlieBrowni3) August 10, 2026
Remember in the old days, stores had a shelf for day old bakery supplies. What are they putting in them now so they can’t get old. They don’t want you to know.
— Dennis Peterson (@Dpete9Peterson) August 10, 2026
NBC News added these details:
Stephanie Harris, chief public policy officer for the Food Industry Association, which represents grocers and other food suppliers, said that the GRAS proposal is “an important step” but shows limits of what the FDA can do to make such reforms, legally.
“Congress should act this year to establish a nationally uniform, science-based framework for ingredient transparency that strengthens FDA’s role, avoids a fragmented state-by-state patchwork and provides consumers and the food industry with clarity and confidence,” Harris said in a statement.
During the media event, Kennedy also announced a federally recognized definition for ultraprocessed foods is under “final review” but did not provide the text of the definition. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services did not give a timeline for when that would be made public.
Here’s some additional recent commentary from the HHS secretary:
RFK Jr.: "Parents should not need a chemistry degree to understand what their children are eating. Americans deserve real transparency, they deserve real food." pic.twitter.com/DTPEwXdKFH
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) August 10, 2026
What are your thoughts?
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
