According to an article published October 20, 2014 by the news provider Reuters the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to issue a final rule on its controversial food additive notification process by August 2016. Under U.S. regulation, the legal term food additives include both food additives intentionally and directly added to the foodstuffs and indirectly added food contact materials (FCMs). The food additive notification process, a proposed rule that the FDA has been operating since 1997 for generally recognized as safe (GRAS) substances, recently came under attack as it was never formally adopted. Earlier this year the non-profit Center for Food Safety sued the FDA on these grounds. Now the Center for Food Safety announced that it reached a settlement agreement with the FDA requiring the FDA to issue a final rule by August 2016. A final rule on the notification process will allow consumers to eventually resume their role in the rule making process, states Donna Solen, senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety.
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Anjali Athavaley (October 20, 2014).“FDA expected to issue rule on food additives process by 2016.”Reuters
