It’s all food safety delays at the FDA
JR Culpepper
The Food and Drug Administration has delayed a long list of food chemicals and food safety actions, both promised and legally required. In some cases, these actions have been overdue for more than 30 years.
The chemicals the FDA has ignored have been linked to serious health harms, including cancer and hormone disruption.
The FDA’s record speaks for itself.
Where the federal government is failing, states are stepping in to protect public health. Some chemicals with long overdue pending actions, including butylated hydroxyanisole, or BHA, and potassium bromate, have already been banned by individual states – which have a far better track record than the FDA when it comes to food chemicals.
But a draft bill newly proposed in Congress, the FRESH and Affordable Foods Act, could cancel those state laws.
To shine a light on these failures, EWG created a report card showing the cases in which the FDA has missed its own deadlines for oversight of serious food safety issues.
| Action | Key dates and deadlines | Status |
|---|---|---|
|
Finalize industry guidance on arsenic in apple juice
Provide information to manufacturers on the action level for inorganic arsenic in apple juice that the FDA considers protective of human health and achievable with the use of good manufacturing practices.
|
The FDA proposed draft guidance in 2013. In 2018, the FDA announced that a draft level would be finalized by year end. The FDA finalized the guidance in 2023. |
Finalized after a five-year delay. |
|
Finalize produce safety rule
Establish science-based minimum standards for the safe growing, harvesting, packing and storage of fruits and vegetables grown for human consumption.
|
The Food Safety Modernization Act was signed into law in 2011. The FDA originally proposed a produce safety rule in 2013. The proposed rule was modified in 2014. The final rule was issued in 2015, and a revised final rule addressing contamination from agricultural water was proposed in 2022. The revised rule was finalized in 2024. |
Finalized after delay. |
| Action | Key dates and deadlines | Status |
|---|---|---|
|
Respond to carcinogenic flavors food additive petition
|
The deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2016. In 2018 it granted the petition after the organizations involved, including EWG and others, filed a lawsuit. |
Approved after a two-year delay. |
| The deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 1990. | Delayed more than 36 years. BHA is under post-market review. The FDA issued a request for information in February but the petition is still pending. | |
|
Respond to potassium bromate citizen petition
|
The deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2000. | Delayed more than 26 years. |
|
Respond to caramel coloring citizen petition
|
The deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2011. | Delayed more than 15 years. |
| The deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2021. | Delayed more than five years. | |
|
Respond to bisphenol A food additive petition
|
The deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2022. | Delayed more than four years. |
|
Respond to titanium dioxide color additive petition
|
The deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2024. | Delayed more than three years. |
|
Respond to fluorinated polyethylene petition
|
The deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2025. | Delayed more than one year. |
| The deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2025. | Delayed more than a year. | |
|
Respond to lead as a food additive petition
|
The deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2020. | Delayed nearly six years. |
|
Respond to carcinogenic solvents petition
|
The deadline for the FDA to respond to the petition was in 2024. | Delayed nearly two years. |
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