HHS Secretary Kennedy Targets Food Industry GRAS Exemption for Ultra-Processed Ingredients

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an interview that aired in February 2026 that he will be looking into the safety of ultra-processed foods, claiming the current industry-led standards are not enough. Kennedy stated, "There is no way for any American to know if a product is safe if it is ultra processed."

The secretary took issue with the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) exemption that permits food companies to independently verify the safety of ingredients without government oversight from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) if it is broadly recognized as safe. The GRAS exemption, enacted by Congress in 1958, allows companies to independently verify the safety of their ingredients with no government oversight if those ingredients are generally recognized by experts as safe. This loophole has been in place since 1997, allowing food manufacturers to conduct their own safety research of an ingredient before putting it on the market.

"That loophole was hijacked by the industry and it was used to add thousands upon thousands of new ingredients into our food supply. In Europe, there's only 400 legal ingredients," Kennedy said. "This agency does not know how many ingredients there are in American food." Kennedy said estimates show there could be somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 ingredients in American products.

There is currently no single definition of "ultra-processed foods" that is used by federal regulators. The FDA and the Department of Agriculture are working to establish a uniform definition. According to the NOVA system developed by researchers at the University of São Paulo School of Public Health, "ultra-processed foods" are defined as "industrially created food products" made with "additives to enhance the taste and/or convenience of the product."

Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler echoed Kennedy's concerns about ultra-processed foods. "Over the last 40 years, the United States has been exposed to something that our biology was never intended to handle: energy-dense, highly palatable, rapidly absorbable, ultra-processed foods that have altered our metabolism and have resulted in the greatest increase in chronic disease in our history," Kessler said. Kessler says ultraprocessed foods are a primary driver of type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, hypertension, abnormal lipids, fatty liver, heart attacks, stroke and heart failure.

According to Kessler, many ultraprocessed foods "target the brain reward circuits that keep us coming back for more. They trigger overeating. They deprive us of any sense of fullness." Kessler is petitioning Kennedy to outright revoke the GRAS status for dozens of processed refined carbohydrates — sweeteners and starches, such as corn syrup and maltodextrin — unless companies can prove they are safe and not fueling obesity. Kennedy said he intends to act on Kessler's petition.

Kennedy said, "Seventy percent of Americans are either obese or overweight, and it's not because they got indolent or because we became lazy or because we suddenly developed giant appetites. It's because we're being given food that is low in nutrition and high in calories and it's destroying our health."

In the interview, Kennedy said he believes he will prevail against food companies because he has the support of President Trump. "I'm not saying that we're going to regulate ultra-processed food," Kennedy added. "Our job is to make sure that everybody understands what they're getting, to have an informed public." Kennedy said the administration is "laser focused" on making whole foods affordable and accessible to every American.

Under Kennedy's tenure, federal food policy has placed an emphasis on whole foods, one area of his "Make America Healthy Again" agenda that has drawn bipartisan support. Kennedy last month issued new dietary guidelines that, for the first time, advise against highly processed foods.

The Consumer Brands Association, one of the largest trade groups representing the food industry, said the GRAS process enables companies to "innovate to meet consumer demand" and that "food companies adhere to FDA's science and risk-based evaluation of ingredients in the food supply before and after they are in the marketplace."

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), which represents 14,000 companies in every sector, including the food and beverage industry, released a report in February 2026 outlining how the U.S. food and beverage supply chain produces "safe, abundant, accessible and nutritious" options for Americans. The NAM report said recent "policy trends threaten America's safe and abundant food supply, global leadership in safe and nutritious food production and innovation across food technologies."

The group added that altering the status quo threatens to raise costs for consumers and companies alike. In addition to Kennedy, Republican- and Democratic-led states across the country have taken steps to crack down on ultra-processed foods. "Collectively, these rapidly shifting policies, laws and regulations at both the state and federal levels threaten to impose costs and disruption on the production and manufacturing of food that feeds every American," the NAM wrote. "These changes also undermine the larger economic benefits from the broader supply chain that grows, harvests, transports, processes, packages and delivers food to consumers."

The American Farm Bureau Federation, the largest general farm organization in the U.S., said, "[A] healthy diet relies on a variety of nutrient-dense foods and a balance of healthy fats, carbohydrates, protein and fiber, some of which can come from shelf-stable foods."