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May 2, 2025<\/b> \u2013 Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) is working on legislation that would tighten some rules around food additives and preempt a patchwork of state laws currently cropping up around the country<\/a>, which gained momentum as a result of the Make America Healthy Again<\/a> (MAHA) movement.<\/p>\n Marshall is planning on calling the legislation the Food Ingredient Transparency (FIT) Act, a legislative assistant, Lacy Pitts, said at a food policy event hosted by the Institute of Food Technologists\u2019 D.C. chapter on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in March<\/a> that he was directing the FDA to look into changing the rules around ingredients the agency calls GRAS, or \u201cgenerally recognized as safe.\u201d<\/p>\n Currently, companies can add their own ingredients to the list without obtaining FDA approval, but Kennedy hinted then that he would need the law to change to get some of that work done. Kennedy said he was hoping to work with Congress to \u201ccompletely close the loophole.\u201d<\/p>\n Marshall\u2019s bill will require \u201cmandatory notification\u201d for new GRAS additives, according to Pitts. Companies would have to submit paperwork to the FDA alerting regulators to the use of a new additive in a product, but those additives still would not go through an approval process.<\/p>\n The bill will also include provisions related to a plan the FDA proposed last year<\/a> to strengthen the review of food chemicals already on the market, including those on the GRAS list. Finally, she said it will include language that prevents states from passing laws that contradict the federal regulations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know it\u2019s much easier for food manufacturers in the industry to get products across state lines if they have one united framework to follow,\u201d Pitts said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n