Law & Policy Dormant Updated Aug 11, 2026
The FDA's ultra-processed food fight
Where it stands, Aug 11, 2026 The FDA proposed a rule ending the self-affirmed GRAS pathway that let companies clear new food ingredients without notifying the agency, while delaying a formal ultra-processed food definition.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called ultra-processed foods poison, but the FDA told industry it won't ban them and is struggling to even define the category, even as ultra-processed foods make up 55% of Americans' calories and 67% of children's. The fight is whether the administration moves beyond rhetoric toward an actual regulatory definition and rule.
What the brief said to watch
- Due Aug 11, 2026, no word yet The FDA will publish the rule in the federal register August 11 and open the 120-day comment window; the promised ultra-processed food definition remains stuck at the Office of Management and Budget with no release date [150]
- Raised Jul 30, 2026, no date set - The bill moves to the full Senate floor; Committee Chair Bill Cassidy says he is separately drafting a national uniform food-regulation standard [173].
The story so far
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Aug 11, 2026 Latest
The FDA proposed a rule ending the self-affirmed GRAS pathway that let companies clear new food ingredients without notifying the agency, while delaying a formal ultra-processed food definition. Acting commissioner Kyle Diamantas said the change closes critical information gaps, and 967 companies are expected to submit information on already self-affirmed ingredients once the rule opens a 120-day public comment period on August 11.
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Jul 20, 2026
FDA acting deputy commissioner for food Donald Prater told industry the agency's role is not to ban ultra-processed food, and the agency acknowledged that defining the category is challenging, even as Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called such foods poison. Ultra-processed foods make up 55% of Americans' calories and 67% of children's, and 79% of consumers call them a significant threat to public health.
This fight, in numbers
Every sourced figure the brief has published on this storyline, newest first.
- 2,000+ self-GRAS and **1,740** FEMA GRAS substances already on the market that the new rule would cover
- 120 days the public comment period before FDA drafts a final rule, with no fixed timetable after that
- 967 companies are expected to submit information for ingredients already self-affirmed as GRAS under the new streamlined pathway
- 120-day public comment period begins when the rule publishes in the Federal Register on August 11
- 180 days is FDA's new window to rule on a GRAS notice, after a 45-day pre-filing check
- 12 to 10 the committee vote advancing the Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act (S. 5026) to the full Senate
- $11 billion spent annually by the food and beverage industry on advertising, per Sanders
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