The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday took steps to ban BHA, a food additive used in processed foods such as meat and bread.
BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) has been used in the food supply for decades. The FDA first listed the substance as “generally recognized as safe” in 1958 and approved it as a food additive in 1961. It is used to prevent fats and oils from spoiling in food and can be found in products such as frozen foods, breakfast cereals, cookies, ice cream, and some meat products.
The agency said it would launch a new safety review of the chemical, citing long-standing concerns that the food additive could cause cancer in humans.
In the 1990s, the National Toxicology Program (a federal program that considers whether certain chemicals have the potential to cause harm) identified BHA as “reasonably expected to be a human carcinogen” based on animal studies. Listed as a known carcinogen under California’s Proposition 65.
Studies linking BHA to cancer in animals date back to the 1980s and 1990s, but there are few studies in humans.
As part of its review, the FDA said it is issuing so-called requests for information, asking the public and industry to submit data on how BHA is being sued and whether it is safe.
“This reassessment marks the end of the ‘trust us’ era in food safety,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement.
The review is in line with President Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” policy, which focused on cracking down on chemicals in the food supply.
Last year, President Kennedy announced plans to phase out all artificial colors from the food supply by the end of this year, claiming that they are the cause of behavioral problems in children, including hyperactivity. The FDA says it is monitoring it, but the link has not been established.
The FDA subsequently approved expanded use of “natural” dyes, including beetroot red, and spirulina extract, an existing color additive derived from a type of algae.
Marion Nestle, professor emeritus of nutrition, food research and public health at New York University, said she would like to know how the FDA plans to evaluate the safety of BHA.
Previous toxicity studies on BHA have relied on laboratory tests and animal studies, and it’s not always clear how well those results translate to humans, she said.
She added that research on human subjects would not be practical, would take too long, would be too expensive and would raise major ethical concerns.
Still, Nestlé praised the FDA’s move to begin a new safety review of BHA. She said the chemical has been on the science center’s public interest bureau’s “avoid” list for years. This center is an organization that monitors food safety.
“It’s time for the FDA to address it,” Nestlé said. “It will be interesting to see what conclusions the reviewers come to.”
The Consumer Brands Association, an industry group, did not respond to a request for comment.
