Food and Drug Administration

Feb. 16 (UPI) — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to take action on a petition calling for increased regulations on ultra-processed foods.

Kennedy said in an interview on CBS News’s 60 minutes on Sunday that he wants to address concerns raised by a citizen petition to the Food and Drug Administration. The petition seeks to limit exposure to ultra-processed foods and ingredients to prevent the risks of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

“There is no way for any American to know if a product is safe if it is ultra processed,” Kennedy said.

The petition seeks to make changes to the “Generally recognized as safe” exemption that allows food companies to verify the safety of foods and ingredients independently. Changes would include revoking the allowance of processed refined carbohydrates in food processing and removing such products from the shelves unless specifically authorized.

Kennedy said the exemption is a loophole that has allowed food companies to introduce “thousands upon thousands of new ingredients into our food supply.”

“This agency does not know how many ingredients there are in American food,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy clarified that it has not been determined that the Trump administration will regulate ultra-processed foods. The term “ultra-processed food” has not been defined by federal regulators.

Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler authored the petition. Kessler served under presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and was involved with “Operation Warp Speed” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kessler defined ultra-processed foods as refined sweeteners, refined flours and starches, and added fats and oils and salt. However, his petition is focused on refined sweeteners, flours and starches, which are processed refined carbohydrates.

Refined sweeteners include ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, glucose syrup and dextrose.

“These processed refined carbohydrates are central to the widespread availability of ultraprocessed foods,” Kessler writes. “This petition focuses on processed refined carbohydrates that are primary causal determinants of metabolic harm.”

Feb. 13 (UPI) — A restructuring of the Department of Health and Human Services will see two top people leave ahead of the midterm elections, unnamed officials familiar with the decision told media outlets Friday.

HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill and General Counsel Mike Stuart are expected to soon leave the agency, sources have reported to Axios, Politico and CNN.

“They are being offered jobs within the administration but will not be remaining in their current positions,” one source told Politico.

O’Neill is the second-in-command behind HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and is the interim leader of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. He has boosted anti-vax messaging, allegations of Medicaid fraud and the United States leaving the World Health Organization.

On Thursday, Kennedy announced that Chris Klomp, deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, would become chief counselor in charge of overseeing all Health and Human Services Department operations. Before joining the administration, he was a health tech executive and venture capitalist.

Kennedy also promoted Kyle Diamantas, deputy commissioner for human foods, and Grace Graham, deputy commissioner for policy, legislation and international affairs, to senior counselors for the Food and Drug Administration. They will also keep their current positions. John Brooks will also be a senior counselor at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services while keeping his job as chief policy and regulatory officer.

The moves are intended to focus attention on Make America Healthy Again policies, like dietary guidelines changes, eliminating artificial food dyes and improving healthcare affordability.

“What basically happened was that HHS Secretary Kennedy, and also the White House, realized that we want to be most efficiently and most effectively implementing that policy and moving the needle on these issues that we see as very clear and unambiguous wins for us,” the White House official told Politico. “And obviously the polling and such is very clear on these topics as well.”

Feb. 10 (UPI) — The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday it’s undertaking a review of the chemical preservative butylated hydroxyanisole to determine if the potentially carcinogenic substance is safe for continued use.

Health officials have aired concerns about BHA since its use was approved, and the National Institute of Health’s National Toxicology Program describes it as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” based on studies using animals, according to the FDA.

The preservative, commonly referred to as BHA, is used to preserve food and as a food contact substance to prevent contamination for food packaging materials.

“BHA has remained in the food supply for decades despite being identified by the National Toxicology Program as ‘reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen’ based on animal studies,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday.

“This reassessment marks the end of the ‘trust us’ era in food safety,” Kennedy continued.

“If BHA cannot meet today’s gold-standard science for its current uses, we will remove it from the food supply and continue cleaning up food chemicals — starting where children face the greatest exposure,” he added.

The FDA has prioritized the study of BHA while the federal agency assesses various chemicals that are contained within the nation’s food supply.

It previously recognized BHA as safe in 1958 and approved its use as a food additive in 1961 to help preserve the oils and fats that commonly are found in many food products.

Such foods include frozen meals, breakfast cereals, meat products and many types of snacks.

The use of BHA has declined in recent years, but its use continues, including in food products that are marketed to children.

“The FDA is committed to ensuring the safety of chemicals in our food supply through rigorous, science-based evaluation,” said Kyle Diamantas, deputy commissioner for the FDA’s Human Foods Program.

“This comprehensive post-market assessment of BHA reflects our proactive approach to food safety and our dedication to protecting public health by continuously reviewing the latest scientific evidence,” he said.

The review is part of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again effort, which seeks to remove potentially harmful chemicals and other substances from the nation’s food supply.