Agency and industry must evaluate cumulative health effects of classes of related food chemicals. Today, a group of health, environmental, and consumer organizations challenged the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) practice of not accounting for the cumulative health effect of chemicals in the diet when allowing new chemicals in food. Over 60 years ago, Congress passed a law requiring that FDA and industry do just that. Unfortunately, an Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) investigation of nearly 900 safety determinations found that only one considered the requirement in a meaningful way. […]
