The FDA recently made its first move on a 1958 food-chemical law. Why now?

Dear journalist,

The FDA recently released an evaluation ortho-phthalates allowed in food-contact materials and concluded that four should be considered together as a class when assessing their cumulative risks in the future. This action reads as routine — but it may be the agency's first notable step toward regulating food chemicals by their combined health effects in nearly 70 years. Congress passed a law mandating this in 1958, but as far as we can tell, the FDA has taken no meaningful action to implement it since.

That raises questions: Why has FDA taken so long to act? Will the agency follow through to conduct a cumulative risk review on phthalates? And will they consider the cumulative health effects of the thousands of other food chemicals that have not yet been reviewed? A new report out today from Consumer Reports and Environmental Defense Fund traces it back — the 1958 mandate, the 1959 rules, and no identifiable action until this year. It also digs into the cumulative effects and how these chemicals get into our food in the first place.

Maria Doa, Environmental Defense Fund's lead chemicals expert and a former Director of EPA's Science Policy Division and Brian Ronholm, Consumer Reports' food policy director and a former USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety, can talk through the cumulative health effects of chemicals in food and what enforcing the 1958 law would require to better protect consumers.

You can find the full paper here and our Instagram carousel on it here — please reach out if you'd like to speak with our experts.