Dr. Marion Nestle, longtime NYU professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health, with additional faculty roles at UC San Francisco and Cornell, is best known for analyzing the intersections of food, politics, and health, often exposing how government policy, corporate lobbying, and food industry marketing shape what we eat.
I first read about this in Food Business News: New coalition targets ‘ingredient transparency’
Major food, agricultural and consumer products trade groups and companies have given their support to Americans for Ingredient Transparency (AFIT), a new policy advocacy coalition seeking a uniform national standard for ingredient transparency…With many states now enacting or considering their own ingredient transparency laws, the goal is to avoid the emergence of “an ever-expanding patchwork of disjointed food, beverage and personal care regulations” that would sow confusion among US consumers, the coalition said.
Specifically, AFIT said it will focus on reform of the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) process, front-of-package labeling and QR codes…The group also said it seeks to amend the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to establish the US Food and Drug Administration as “the sole entity setting the floor and ceiling for regulations on the marketing and sale of foods, beverages and over-the-counter products in the United States.”
Translation: The coalition wants a weak federal law to preempt (block) tougher state standards for GRAS qualification and front-of-pack labels.
US Right to Know explains what this is really about: Americans for Ingredient Transparency: Product defense for unhealthy ultra-processed foods.It shows:
Sarah Sorscher in Food Safety News calls this out for what it is: a front group aiming to weaken food safety rules.
But wait! 84 organizations have called on Congress to block preemption of states’ rights to regulate food chemicals .
I’m for this group.
Which side are you on?
Let your congressional representatives know.
Now.
The post Big Food wants federal preemption (blocking) of tougher state standards for chemicals in food appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle.
About Marion Nestle
Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, which she chaired from 1988-2003 and from which she officially retired in September 2017. She is also Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Transylvania University in Kentucky (2012) and from the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College (2016). In 2023, she was awarded The Edinburgh Medal (for science and society).
