Food companies are pushing a bill in Congress, the FRESH Act, as a food safety measure. It isn’t.
The bill, if enacted, would block state laws regulating chemicals in food, known as preemption. And its preemption provisions are so broad it could harm public health far beyond the chemicals the measure would allow in food, according to a new Harvard Law School analysis.
The FRESH Act would make the Food and Drug Administration the sole regulator of food additives, stripping states of the authority to pass or enforce their own food chemical laws.
In practice, Harvard’s analysis finds the bill’s preemption language covers almost anything that could become a “component” of food. That means the FRESH Act’s threats to the food supply are twofold: It would erase state bans on harmful food chemicals – and might roll back a range of other public health protections with it.
One consequence of the bill would be blocking state laws that require folic acid to be added to certain foods – a practice the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called one of the greatest public health achievements in recent decades.
Benefits of folic acid fortification
The addition of folic acid to food – also known as folic acid fortification – is a public health measure designed to prevent neural tube defects in infants. Conditions like spina bifida can develop in the first weeks of pregnancy, often before someone even knows they’re pregnant.
The U.S. has required folic acid fortification in enriched grain products like bread and cereal since 1998. This policy may have helped to reduce the rate of neural tube defects by between 25% and 50%.
Many Latino communities benefit less from the federal fortification mandate, because they eat more tortillas and tamales – foods not captured in national fortification requirements. So some states, including Alabama and California, have extended that mandate to include corn masa flour. Florida introduced a similar bill to address health disparities, though it failed in committee.
The FRESH Act would wipe away those existing state laws and prevent any other state from pursuing future similar measures.
Harvard’s analysis warns that the FRESH Act’s preemption language is broad enough to block new folic acid fortification laws from ever taking effect, and to erase the ones already on the books in Alabama and California.
Despite its industry backers calling the bill a way to ensure consistent food safety nationwide, it could also frustrate other public health measures. For example, it would likely block state allergen labeling requirements and lead and arsenic limits in baby food.
Stopping state food chemical laws
A group called Americans for Ingredient Transparency, which is backed by major multinational food corporations, is pushing the bill.
Their goal is simple: make the FDA the only regulator that matters when it comes to food additives, effectively shutting state efforts down.
But the FDA’s system for evaluating food chemical safety is effectively broken.
Under current law, food companies can add chemicals to food through a provision called GRAS, or “generally recognized as safe.” It is a regulatory loophole that has allowed thousands of chemicals into our food supply – some of which the chemical companies never even notified the FDA about.
And a recent GRAS “reform” proposal from the FDA fails to fix the broken system. Although it would require companies to tell the FDA about new chemicals, it sets no deadlines for notification, allows companies to use new chemicals before the FDA has reviewed them, and fails to guarantee those chemicals are safe.
It also permits existing GRAS chemicals to stay on the market without submitting any safety data to the FDA.
The absence of federal leadership on food safety prompted many states to step up. In many cases, states are the sole line of defense against food chemicals that may harm our health. In 2025 alone, more than 30 states introduced nearly 120 bills addressing food chemical safety.
What needs to change – and what you can do now
Congress should reject the FRESH Act – and in the meantime, states should continue passing and defending their own food safety laws.
Join EWG in Washington, D.C., on September 15 for our Toxics Off the Table! rally to fight the FRESH Act and protect state food safety laws. Visit our website for more information.
Until there are enough policies in place to protect public health, EWG’s tools can help you navigate the food supply.
EWG’s Dirty Dozen™ Guide to Food Chemicals breaks down the most concerning additives currently allowed in our food.
And our Food Scores database lets you search for more than 150,000 products rated on nutrition, ingredient and processing concerns. Use EWG’s Healthy Living™ App on the go.
