Critics warn that the federal bill, which preempts food safety laws in hundreds of states, would weaken consumer protections from toxic chemicals, but supporters say it would lower food costs and ease supply chain strain.
At an April 29 press conference hosted by the Environmental Task Force, California Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel said the FDA’s Food Safety, Health, and Health (FRESH) and Affordable Review and Evaluation Act is a “Trojan horse for the food industry” and a “direct attack on the health and safety of children” that would repeal dozens of food safety laws passed in both red and blue states across the country.
“This is going to move the federal government, which has failed to make the switch for decades, from inaction to obstruction to actually getting in the way of public health,” Gabriel said.
In addition to establishing a single federal standard, the FRESH Act would exempt “common food ingredients” from regulation as food additives, with this category defined as ingredients consumed or sold as food before January 1, 1958.
Additionally, the bill would require companies to notify the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the food ingredients they use under the “Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS)” designation, which exempts additives from review and now allows companies to provide ingredients without notifying the FDA.
The FRESH Act, which amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, also requires the creation of a program to assess the safety of chemicals in the food supply by September 30, 2026, and the publication of a list of chemicals to prioritize in risk assessments by September 30, 2027.
“This will move the federal government, which has been dormant for decades, from inaction to obstruction to actually interfering with public health.” — Jesse Gabriel, California Congressman
The bill was debated Wednesday at a hearing in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee and included 28 different food bills on issues such as GRAS reform, infant formula, and allergens.
“States across the country have responded and passed laws banning various chemicals in the food supply,” Democratic Representative Debbie Dingell of Michigan said during the hearing. “Now we must follow strong federal laws and ensure that harmful chemicals are not allowed in or near the food we eat.”
The FRESH Act comes amid a wave of bipartisan food safety legislation, with more than 20 states recently introducing or passing laws banning toxic food chemicals. Some bills, such as the California School Food Safety Act, specifically ban additives, such as certain artificial colors, in food served in schools.
Although the FRESH Act is touted as a reform, “it’s actually full of industry benefits,” Pennsylvania Republican state Rep. Natalie Michalek said at a press conference. “It does nothing to promote transparency or ensure the safety of ingredients. That’s exactly what we’re doing at the state level.”
The bill’s move to establish a program to conduct safety assessments of chemicals already in the food supply “doesn’t matter when FDA has no funding and when FDA continues to face cuts,” Michalek added. “I don’t see any language in this bill that would actually increase the resources needed to do any kind of robust assessment of what’s in our food supply.”
The proposed changes to the FRESH Act reflect policy priorities set by Americans for Ingredient Transparency (AFIT), a coalition of food giants including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills and Nestlé formed last fall. AFIT’s policy priorities call for the FDA to establish uniform standards as the “single floor and ceiling authority” for food safety evaluation, ingredient approval, registration, reporting and labeling requirements, and to pass the GRAS reform bill.
AFIT’s website states: “The patchwork of food and beverage regulations currently in place across the country will have unintended consequences that will negatively impact the entire country.” “These contradictory rules confuse consumers, limit choice, drive up costs, and harm farmers and small businesses.”
A February 2026 study by Policy Navigation Group, a lobbying and consulting firm, concluded that recently passed ingredient disclosure laws in Louisiana, Texas, and West Virginia will increase grocery costs by more than $12 billion annually for consumers in those states and neighboring states, and a “patchwork” of state regulations is projected to increase grocery costs nationwide.
Joe Coralillo, a member of Wakefern Food Corporation’s board of directors and president of several ShopRite stores in New Jersey, said at the hearing that he supports the FRESH Act because he believes a fragmented, state-driven regulatory approach would create confusion for consumers and disrupt the entire supply chain by “raising costs, reducing product availability, and ultimately making it harder for households to buy groceries.”
Featured image: April Walker/Unsplash
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Shannon Kelleher is a staff reporter at The New Lede. Shannon earned her master’s degree in science journalism from Boston University in 2015, and her research has appeared in The Guardian, Environmental Health News, Mongabay, The Atlantic, and more. She has been a guest on the radio show Living on Earth and is a member of the Environmental Journalists Association and the DC Science Writers Association. Prior to joining TNL in 2022, Shannon wrote news articles and press releases for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She lives in Washington, DC.
