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Guardian US · 10 October 2026 source

“FDA may allow some toxic chemicals to be added to food without safety review. Experts are alarmed”

R2/ 10
Lightly altered
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates the Guardian's claim that the FDA's proposed rule would let toxic chemicals into food without safety review a 2/10, because the Federal Register text itself confirms the agency is proposing to expand the threshold-of-regulation exemption from food-contact materials to substances added directly to food.
The Verdict
Base fact, lightly framed. The headline's core claim checks out word for word against the primary source: FDA's own proposed rule text states it is expanding the threshold of regulation "to cover uses of substances in food and FCSs generally, in addition to FCSs used in food contact articles." The only mild spin is "without safety review," which technically means without a full food-additive petition review, not zero scrutiny; the rule does retain safety criteria, just the lower, disputed 0.5ppb bar that scientists argue is non-protective for hormone disruptors. That's a defensible compression, not a distortion, so this stays near the clean end of the scale.

What actually happened

FDA's proposed GRAS rule, filed quietly to the Federal Register alongside a public "promises kept" announcement about closing the GRAS self-certification loophole, also expands a separate exemption called "threshold of regulation" (TOR). TOR currently applies only to food-contact materials like packaging; the proposed expansion would let it apply to substances added directly to food as ingredients, flavorings, preservatives and processing aids, as long as they're non-carcinogenic and present below 0.5 parts per billion. Food-safety advocates say several chemical classes that are hormone disruptors, including some phthalates, bisphenols, PFAS and flame retardants, can cause harm at doses below that threshold.

Key facts

  • The proposed rule text (Federal Register, 11 Aug 2026) states it would expand TOR to cover "uses of substances in food," not just food-contact substances, confirming the Guardian's central claim.
  • Current TOR exemption threshold: 0.5 parts per billion, and non-carcinogenic substances only; advocates say this ignores endocrine-disrupting effects that occur at lower doses.
  • Precedent cited: a 2005 TOR exemption let BASF use perchlorate in grain storage "super sacks"; FDA's own 2017 data showed perchlorate levels in sampled kids' cereal increased afterward, yet the agency reapproved the exemption six months later.
  • Perchlorate interferes with thyroid iodine uptake needed for T4 hormone production, which is linked to lower child IQ at low exposure levels, per the advocates and scientists cited in the article.
  • The TOR expansion is embedded inside the same August 2026 proposed rule that Kennedy and the FDA publicly framed only as "closing" the GRAS loophole.

What to watch for

Watch the public comment period on the Federal Register docket for how FDA responds to objections on cumulative-exposure and endocrine-disruption science, since the rule hasn't been finalized. Also watch whether later coverage or FDA statements acknowledge the TOR expansion was bundled with the GRAS announcement, since that's the detail "promises kept" messaging omitted, not the headline itself.

About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
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