FDA to consider banning food preservative used in rubber, plastic

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is weighing whether to ban a common food preservative used in rubber, plastic and glue.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said the agency will review butylated hydroxyanisole, known as BHA, after concerns about its potential health effects.

“About 4,600 different types of food that are common in the U.S. food supply have BHA. It’s an ingredient that’s found in rubber, in plastic, in glue,” Makary told the Daily Wire. “A National Toxicology Program assessment said that there’s a reasonable anticipation that it’s carcinogenic or cancer-causing.”

BHA appears in thousands of processed foods sold in grocery stores. The compound has long been allowed under a federal policy known as “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS, which lets companies determine on their own whether certain ingredients are safe.

Makary said the policy was never meant to cover modern chemical additives.

“It was originally intended for things like salt, and things that were naturally in the environment, but companies over time used this loophole to be able to self declare chemicals as safe without any real good, solid testing, and then just insert them into the food, not because it added any taste or flavor, but because it increased the shelf life of certain foods,” he said.

“Now that this medical field has matured and caught up, the data now shows that there are health concerns with some of these chemicals,” he added.

The FDA is also reviewing two related additives: BHT and azodicarbonamide.

“BHT is very common in cereal. It’s known to be a hormone disruptor,” Makary said, “and azodicarbonamide, which is a dough conditioner, is what gives yoga mats the sort of air bubbles to give it the cushion.

“It’s also used in shoes to make them more springy. And it’s also found in breads and foods, and it just doesn’t make sense that the same chemicals used to condition yoga mats and shoes are also being used in food for children,” he added.

Makary said replacing the preservatives would not significantly raise costs for manufacturers. He also announced tighter standards for labeling, especially for products claiming to contain no artificial dyes.

“The FDA is making it very clear what these labels should mean, and what the criteria are. For example, the label, ‘no artificial dyes’ will now mean no artificial dyes,” he said.

“Now, you can trust that label, ‘no artificial dyes.’ And at the same time, the FDA approved last week two new natural dyes that can be used as alternatives to the petroleum artificial dyes, and that’s what we need to do.”