Stricter FDA regulations improve American diets

Blaire Williamson, Staff Writer • February 27, 2025

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) strives to limit overly processed foods with harmful additives in the United States (US).

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is working towards improving the country’s food and health standards to combat the ever-increasing rates of diabetes, poor cardiovascular health, and many other food-related illnesses. This movement began with banning Red Dye 3 and proposing new food labels to better educate consumers about what they are eating. The European Union (EU) has banned these additives, such as Red Dye 3, since 1994, while the United States (US) just restricted them in January. In fact, European diets promote better cardiovascular health due to significantly lower consumption of highly processed junk food compared to Americans, according to harvardhealth.edu. Yet, the recent ban on Red Dye 3, improved front-of-package nutrition labeling on packaged foods, and President Donald J. Trump’s new initiative to “Make America Healthy Again” suggest that the US is trying to improve the overall US health system, according whitehouse.gov.

The FDA’s recent proposal, January 14, to require a front-of-package (FOP) nutrition label on packaged food strives to give customers more accessible information about what they consume and to improve the US health system and the average American’s diet, according to fda.gov. These labels will state the percentage of saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars instead of all the other ingredients that companies often place on on the back of packaged goods and that can confuse customers, perhaps purposefully, to not be aware of the highly processed, dangerous, or unhealthy food they are consuming. Additionally, they would clearly state if a product contains harmful food additives instead of practically hiding a dangerous ingredient in a tiny paragraph. Mr. Andrew Jacobs, a writer for The New York Times, stated that the FOP nutrition food labels on packaged goods in other countries and years of research influenced this new proposition.

New labels proposed by the FDA aim to better educate consumers about what they are eating. Courtesy of *fda.gov*

“The proposal follows three years of research by agency scientists, who considered the front-of-package labels used by other countries,” Mr. Jacobs said, according to The New York Times. “Nutrition experts said they were generally pleased by the look and the content of the new labels, but some expressed disappointment that they did not convey more forceful warnings when a product had unhealthy levels of salt, sugar and saturated fat. Some had also pressed the F.D.A. to include information about calories.”

While these new labels may prove to be a step in the right direction, they are not yet enough to change the direction of the US’s food system, according to nbcnews.com. Currently, roughly 65 percent of adults and 15 percent of children in America are overweight or obese due to the presence of highly processed foods, which are normalized in US culture and everyday life. As a result, Americans tend to eat more calories than they can burn without even realizing it, according to thenationalinstituteofhealth.gov. Mr. Jonathan Gold, Director of Dining Services at Sacred Heart Greenwich, shared his opinion on the new FDA bans and regulations, and reflected on how Sacred Heart aims to provide healthy, nutritious, and safe food for its students.

“I feel that the new FDA regulations and their goals are fantastic and should have happened a lot sooner,” Mr. Gold said. “I believe that all ingredients should be natural and have no genetically modified organisms (GMOs), just like how here at Sacred Heart we make sure to limit over processed foods, have restrictions on every product we buy, and ensure the vendors we buy from are doing the right thing. I definitely think the FDA has more work to do in regards to making American foods healthy and safe, as it has been proven in other countries that have stricter food regulations and eating healthier makes a huge difference in people’s lives, and so we must do the same.”

Red Dye 3 is just one of many potentially dangerous dyes and ingredients that are found in popular processed foods, drinks, and candies. Courtesy of *cnn.com*

In fact, even though the 1958 amendment to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act prohibits the FDA from approving food additives linked to cancer, substances approved before the amendment are still approved, even if they are dangerous or linked to cancer. This means that any product approved before 1958, a time when, compared to today’s technology, there was very little research and knowledge about the harmful effects of processed foods and additives, are still circulating even now. Ms. Roni Caryn Rabin, a health reporter for the New York Times, reflected even though the EU has banned many cancerous food additives and drugs, these products are still used in US products today.

“The European Union prohibits or severely restricts many food additives that have been linked to cancer that are still used in American-made bread, cookies, soft drinks and other processed foods,” Ms. Rabin said, according to The New York Times. “Europe also bars the use of several drugs that are used in farm animals in the United States, and many European countries limit the cultivation and import of genetically modified foods. Most [harmful additives] must be listed as ingredients on the labels, though information about drugs used to increase the yield in farm animals is generally not provided.”

Featured Image by Blaire Williamson ’27

About the Contributor

Blaire Williamson, Staff Writer

Blaire is overjoyed to begin her first year working for the King Street Chronicle as a staff writer. She enjoys writing and has wanted to join the newspaper since freshman year. Additionally, she is eager to learn and acquire journalistic writing skills. In her spare time, Blaire loves to read, play the guitar, and hang out with family and friends.