RFK Jr. says ultraprocessed food manufacturers hijacked GRAS "loophole" to use questionable ingredients

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CBS News

February 15, 2026 / 7:00 PM EST


Ultraprocessed foods comprise half of the average American's diet, and according to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are leading to Americans being obese and malnourished at the same time.

Kennedy said that Americans don't know about the health consequences of what they eat thanks to a 67-year-old government exemption allowing ingredients that are generally recognized as safe, or GRAS. Kennedy says the Food and Drug Administration of today doesn't know how many ingredients there are in American products, but he says estimates show there could be somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 ingredients.

"There is no way for any American to know if a product is safe if it is ultraprocessed," Kennedy said.

Why American grocery shelves are filled with ultraprocessed foods

The GRAS exemption, enacted by Congress in 1958, allows companies to independently verify the safety of their ingredients with no government oversight if those ingredients are generally recognized by experts as safe. Kennedy said, "that loophole was hijacked by the industry" and food companies flooded the market with ultraprocessed foods full of ingredients that have not undergone full government safety reviews.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gras-impact-on-us-food-diet-60-minutes/

[Botany]

1. "There is no way for any American to know if a product is safe if it is ultraprocessed," Kennedy said.

So was Kennedy doing the QAQC on the cocaine he was snorting from the toilet seat to make
sure it wasn’t ultra processed?

[turbinetree]

3. Did he clean his coke pipe to make sure there was no ultra processed ingredients.........

calling Bill Cassidy where are you Bill Cassidy...............

[Layzeebeaver]

6. Obviously you are not an expert regarding these things.

Obviously he’s not talking about a coke “pipe”.

He uses a pipe for his opium.

The coke is just snorted through a used drinking straw from the surface of a dirty toilet seat.

Accuracy is important in these medical health and dangerous drug usage topics. That’s why he is so overqualified for the position!!!

[turbinetree]

8. Thank you for the update...............never knew.............

it's still disgusting..................and this needs to be laid at the feet of Bill Cassidy and everyone that confirmed this person............

[Girard442]

2. What Brainworm is really saying:

"I'm not saying that we're going to regulate ultraprocessed food," Kennedy said. "Our job is to make sure that everybody understands what they're getting, to have an informed public.


Means:

"I'm not going to actually do anything. I'm just going to make uncontroversial statements about the unhealthiness of junk food to distract from my batshit crazy but actual consequential policy changes on vaccines that will kill and sicken millions of Americans."

[mpcamb]

4. Maybe the 6 or so lab techs left can spend all their hours checking for GRAS ingredients in each supermarket.

[tanyev]

5. But taking your grandchildren swimming in contaminated water? Totally safe.

😒

[Wonder Why]

9. He's been swimming in the polluted Fat Pig swamp since before the election. So what's new?

[lark]

7. He's a broken clock, right on only this issue and horrible in general!

Basically he's a fuckstick and has no right to have his present job - other than krasnov's desire for him to kill us!

[LiberalLovinLug]

15. Yes he is right. And if this was his only inquiry...he wouldn't have been appointed.

In fact if a Democrat DoH administrator whispered about this there'd be an onslaught on Fox and RW media about big gom'mint telling us what to eat.

Being a Repuke now, there is no "danger" of it ever being followed through with legislation. And of course he knows this.

[Wonder Why]

10. Well, he got one thing right. Only he left off the fact that those companies doing the ultra-processing are owned

by Fat Pig voters like himself. So say it the right way, Bobbie Brain Worm: "The repugs are poisoning Americans every day and have been doing so forever."

[50 Shades Of Blue]

11. But he's OK with raw milk.

[sakabatou]

12. Yup.

Even though it's known to have problems with microbes.

[PufPuf23]

13. Thought this was going to be about a pate au foie gras exemption

of which most are unaware.

RFK Jr's shit would be humorous if he was not so unsuited for an important position.

Nothing is surprising anymore.

[Torchlight]

14. I'd rather ICE undergo a full safety review first

Kennedy (the same guy who called COVID‑19 vaccines “the deadliest vaccine ever made" and that 5G causes cancer) said he'll "use gold standard science to review..."

Go on... pull the other one, Gilligan.