Nutrition is ultra-important.  I can agree with the sentiment in the report that many consumers make poor dietary choices and are consuming less healthy diets.  But we already know that the culprits are high caloric intake, high fat intake, etc. along with lifestyle factors such as less physical activity.  Obesity is a very serious condition that absolutely can shorten lifespan for many.

Within the food industry, its regulators, and the science community in general, it is quite difficult to determine which foods are healthy and which foods might contribute to unhealthy dietary choices.  The part of the documentary on the IFT Expo was pretty reflective of what is being marketed there.  Many companies are trying to make foods healthier but they also want them to be highly acceptable to consumers – better sensory attributes.  If better sensory leads to higher caloric consumption, are we actually helping consumers to maintain a healthier weight?

While part to this piece made some useful points, I was really disturbed by the dialogue on food additives/ingredients.  In general, most food additives have limited consumption levels.  Every toxicologist learns in the first week of a tox course that the dose makes the poison.  These ingredients are, for the most past, not contributing to the obesity/diabetes/etc. epidemic.  Congress could act appropriately to put more emphasis on research on diet/nutrition and health outcomes; many consumers could benefit and food companies could too.  But the parallel focus on the GRAS process is going to be counter-productive in my opinion because it will pull funding away from the real issues.  I could agree that companies should not be able to do GRAS evaluations without notifying FDA and providing FDA with the opportunity to dispute the findings.  Over the years, I have served as a consultant on >50 GRAS panels for various companies.  In every case, these companies have voluntarily notified FDA and waited to market their new ingredient until they get a much-desired No-Questions-Asked letter from FDA which signifies that FDA has not objections to the findings of the GRAS Panel.  And most Fortune 500 food companies would never knowingly use an ingredient in formulation of a food without seeing a copy of the No-Questions-Asked letter from FDA.  The GRAS system does have potential flaws and could be tightened to prevent companies from plunging ahead without allowing any FDA  oversight. 

I will close by again emphasizing that the GRAS food ingredients are not the main issue in the unhealthy diets of many consumers.  The consumer movement toward minimally processed foods has led to documented, unhealthy situations such as the increased consumption of raw milk.  That side of this consumer issue always seems to get ignored.  And among those 1000s of ingredients that are GRAS in the U.S. but not on the approved list in EU, a large percentage are flavoring chemicals used as extremely low doses in processed foods.  I think that most are actually used in  the EU too but just are not on the EU lists because of the somewhat silly 5% rule in the EU that food manufacturers do not even need to acknowledge the presence of ingredients that compromise less than 5% of the overall formulation. 

Steve Taylor

Steve L. Taylor, Ph.D.  |  Professor Emeritus  |  Department of Food Science & Technology  |  Founding Director  - Food Allergy Research & Resource Program  |  University of Nebraska-Lincoln  |  281 Food Innnovation Center  |  1901 North 21^st Street  |  P.O. Box 886207  |  Lincoln, NE  68588-6207 |  Ph. (402) 472-2833  |  staylor2@unl.edu

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From: Silvana Martini <smartini2@unl.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2025 8:09 AM
To: 'fdst-all-building@lists.unl.edu' <fdst-all-building@lists.unl.edu>
Cc: Mike Boehm <mboehm3@unl.edu>; Tiffany Heng-Moss <thengmoss2@unl.edu>; Derek McLean <derek.mclean@unl.edu>; Charles Stoltenow <charles.stoltenow@unl.edu>; Jeff Bassford <jbassford2@unl.edu>; Richard Bischoff <rbischoff2@unl.edu>
Subject: [Fdst-emeriti] Ultra-processed foods

Hi all,

I came across this You-Tube video about Ultra-processed foods released by CBS.  It was released back in September 2024, so it isn’t new. In case you didn’t watch it yet, below is the link. If you are an IFT member you can also read the discussions in IFT Connect.

https://youtu.be/r03hB_xk5xs?si=6vgALGmvVdPqByHf

I think it is important for us to be aware of these types of videos to be prepared to respond to consumers in case a discussion arises.

Silvana

Silvana Martini, PhD Professor, Department Head University of Nebraska–Lincoln Food Science & Technology Lincoln, NE 402-472-5267 Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society Fellow of the American Oil Chemists' Society Past President of the American Oil Chemists' Society (2022-2023)