Secret GRAS

Secret GRAS is the no-notice version of GRAS Self-Certification described in The sneaky way companies get new chemicals into our food. Under this route, a company decides an ingredient is generally recognized as safe and uses it without telling the [[FoodAndDrugAdministration|FDA]].

The episode presents Tara Flour as a case where this opacity mattered. Because the ingredient entered through Secret GRAS, the FDA did not know it was in the food supply until after many consumers became sick from Daily Harvest products.

The concept matters because it separates two policy questions. One is whether company self-certification should exist at all; the other is whether an agency and the public should at least know when a company is relying on it.

Connections

• GRAS Self-Certification - broader self-certification pathway.
• Food Additive Regulation - legal system that creates the opening.
• Tara Flour and Daily Harvest - case example.
• Premarket Food Safety Review and Post-Harm Food Regulation - competing safety models.