On the heels of New York’s win on additives, a new Senate bill wants to redraw the rules on what counts as a safe food ingredient. The FRESH Act of 2026 targets the GRAS system, and the food industry is already pushing back hard.
TLDR
- The FRESH Act would overhaul FDA’s authority over food ingredient safety.
- GRAS reform is the bill’s sharpest edge, alarming major manufacturers.
- Public health advocates and industry groups are on a direct collision course.
- A new ‘common foods’ carve-out could create significant regulatory gray zones.
- The bill’s outcome could reshape ingredient transparency for years.
FRESH Act GRAS Reform: What the Bill Actually Proposes
Sen. Roger Marshall introduced the FRESH Act of 2026 to restructure how the FDA evaluates food ingredients. The bill would carve out a new category called “common foods,” separating them from the existing GRAS framework. That distinction matters enormously for manufacturers who rely on GRAS self-affirmation to bring ingredients to market quickly.
The current GRAS system allows companies to internally determine ingredient safety without mandatory FDA notification. Critics call this a structural loophole. The FRESH Act would tighten that process, but the exact mechanism remains contested.
Additionally, the bill introduces higher evidentiary thresholds for ingredient approvals. That shift could slow product development timelines across the industry.
Who’s Fighting It, and Why It Matters
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has been vocal. CSPI argues the bill’s “common foods” exemption could actually weaken existing protections, not strengthen them. Significant.
Americans for Ingredient Transparency has staked out the opposite concern: that the current GRAS system lacks the accountability consumers now demand. Both groups agree the status quo is broken. They disagree sharply on the cure.
Major food manufacturers are lobbying against provisions that would require retroactive safety reviews of previously self-affirmed GRAS ingredients. That retroactive exposure is the industry’s primary pressure point. However, public health advocates see retroactive review as the entire point.
For operators and suppliers, the bill’s passage would trigger immediate reformulation risk assessments. Ingredients currently sailing through GRAS self-affirmation could face new scrutiny. Watch this.
The food policy landscape is shifting fast. Brands already investing in ingredient transparency will be better positioned regardless of the bill’s final form. Those waiting for regulatory certainty before acting are running out of runway.
Source: FoodNavigator-USA. https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2026/04/24/fresh-act-2026-reform-or-risk-for-fda-food-safety/