The Pros And Cons Of The FDA

Margaret A. Hamburg, a FDA Commissioner who is credited with a master’s degree once said, “A safe global food supply can only be achieved through development of effective food safety management systems, which are essential to the well being of consumers, farmers, processors and manufacturers.” Food is a fundamental desideratum for survival, and the safety of food has been a controversial issue elevating up in America. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the organization which governs food in America. It has been queried rather the chemical in our food are linked with obesity and other health quandaries. Should the FDA crack down on more stringent laws and implement other solutions in order to ascertain that future health issues are eliminated?
The whole stereotypical phrase that “America is obese” strikes up the argument rather the FDA should implement more laws controlling the chemicals. Before actually jumping to conclusions, understanding the laws and regulations behind the FDA will be essential to understanding what can or cannot be done.
The FDA is an organization that through a governmental system, they monitor food, drugs, and medical devices. According to Beatty and Lim, the regulations that the FDA follow are outlined in the FD&C Act; the food, drug, and cosmetic act. (10-14) Part of the process of governing the safety and quality of our foods involves the process of inspections. The FDA has three different inspections that can take place in order to ascertain quality safety. The first inspection is the establishment inspection, which is the most routine inspection, ascertaining the product’s facility meets the standards outlined in the FD&C Act. The second inspection act is the comprehensive act; this inspection is risk predicted and is a result of the FDA suspecting a risk in the product that they are inspecting. During this inspection, the inspector will evaluate every component of the product and probe for smallest quandaries in order to ensure that it will pass
A food additive is any substance that is not considered a food by itself that enhances the quality of food. Food additives enhance taste, texture, flavor, oxidative stability, shelf life, and suppressing spoilage. According to Yu, Wang, and Sun, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) and European Commission, the nutrition value of food additive is disregarded. (254) There are two types of additives, natural additives and synthetic additives. Natural additives are additives that derive from plants and animals and aren’t human made. The second additive, synthetic additives are more commonly found in our food. Synthetic additives are man-made and are engendered from commixing chemicals. Synthetic additives are customarily engendered in a lab setting, and the composition of synthetic additives can be pernicious. If synthetic additives are pernicious to engender, how is it affecting us biologically? Once the FDA has reviewed a chemical and believes it is safe to consume the product is marked as GRAS, which means generally recognized as safe. According to Nelter and Maffini in the article, Generally Recognized as Secret: Chemicals Added to Food in the United States, studies across the world have proved that additives marked as GRAS had opposing results. (9-10) The four main additives done in the study were Epigallocatechin-3-gallate, Theobromine,