{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/with-thanksgiving-approaching-senators-booker-and-markey-announce-legislation-to-improve-food-safety-and-hold-fda-accountable", "With Thanksgiving Approaching, Senators Booker and Markey Announce Legislation to Improve Food Safety and Hold FDA Accountable", "2023-11-21", "2023", "2023-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "NJ", "Cory A. Booker", "B001288", "www.booker.senate.gov", "booker", "https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2013 Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) joined Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass) to announce the?Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act, legislation that would direct the Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 (HHS) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to strengthen the Substances Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) Rule, which exempts companies from seeking pre-market approval for food chemicals. The legislation would also direct the Secretary of HHS to create an Office of Food Chemical Safety, Dietary Supplements, and Innovation within FDA to reassess whether existing GRAS substances are safe for families to consume. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) are cosponsors of the legislation.\n\n\u201cFood companies have been taking advantage of a major gap in US food safety laws to add new chemicals to foods without an independent, scientific review of those additives\u2019 safety. As a result, thousands of food products in the United States contain additives that have been banned in other countries for being carcinogenic, endocrine-disrupting, or developmentally harmful,\u201d said Senator Booker. \u201cAmericans should not have to eat foods with ingredients that have known health harms. This legislation will close the loophole that allows companies to use toxic substances in foods and food packaging.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe only mystery families should encounter at mealtime is what\u2019s for dinner, not what\u2019s in dinner.?Americans deserve to know that the food at their Thanksgiving dinner on the kitchen table is safe for themselves, their families, and loved ones to eat,\u201d?said Senator Markey.?\u201cOur legislation ensures that the FDA doesn\u2019t fall short on their responsibility to ensure that the food we eat is safe. It is long past time that we revise existing food safety measures and close the loophole by allowing manufacturers to self-regulate what new substances can enter our food supply.\u201d\n\nA one-page summary of the legislation can be found?HERE.\n\nSpecifically, the?Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act?would?direct the FDA to revise the GRAS Rule to include provisions that:\n\nProhibit manufacturers from designating substances as safe?without supplying proper notice and supporting information to the Secretary of HHS.\n\nRequire safety information be publicly available on the FDA website and subject to a 90-day public review period.\n\nProhibit carcinogenic substances from receiving GRAS designation.\n\nProhibit substances that show evidence of reproductive or developmental toxicity from receiving GRAS designation.\n\nProhibit people with conflicts of interest from serving as experts in reviewing and evaluating scientific data regarding GRAS designations.\n\nCreate a procedure of reassessment for substances receiving previous GRAS designations.\n\nThe?Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act?is endorsed by the Environmental Working Group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest,?Environmental Defense Fund, Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, and Earthjustice.\n\n\u201cToxic chemicals have no place in our food, especially chemicals linked to cancer,\u201d said Scott Faber, Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at the Environmental Working Group. \u201cEWG applauds Senator Markey for once again putting the health of our families ahead of the profits of chemical companies.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Ensuring Safe and Toxic Free Foods Act addresses two critical shortcomings of FDA\u2019s program to protect consumers from additives to food: the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) loophole that allows new chemicals to be added to food without FDA review and the lack of a system to reassess past agency actions for additives we now recognize as unsafe. We applaud Senator Markey for his ongoing leadership on this important public health issue,\u201d Tom Neltner, Senior Director of Safer Chemicals at Environmental Defense Fund.\n\n\u201cChemicals linked to cancer and other serious health problems are in our daily food \u2013 leaching from the packaging and processing materials.? This is unacceptable, and why we support the Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act, said Lisette Van Vliet, [Senior Policy Coordinator] at Breast Cancer Prevention Partners. This important legislation will close a federal loophole that allows companies to secretly use toxic chemicals for food packaging and processing without FDA oversight or approval.\u201d\n\n\u201cConsumers rightfully expect the Food and Drug Administration \u2013 not industry \u2013 to ensure that the food we feed our families is safe. Earthjustice is grateful for the continued leadership of Senator Markey in his reintroduction of the Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act to help turn that expectation into reality. This vital legislation will finally fix a system that has allowed thousands of chemicals into our food that have never been scrutinized by the FDA. For decades, the agency has allowed companies to make safety determinations on their own and in secret. This must stop. Critically, this bill will also require the FDA to use the best available science to review the safety of harmful food chemicals already in commerce. It is long past time for the United States to join the rest of the modern world in protecting its consumers from harmful chemicals in food. Let\u2019s get this done,\u201d said Daniel Savery, Senior Legislative Representative at Earthjustice.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:01:09Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/with-thanksgiving-approaching-senators-booker-and-markey-announce-legislation-to-improve-food-safety-and-hold-fda-accountable"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0061431676149368, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}