The sneaky way companies get new chemicals into our food

May 29, 2026

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5 min read

In 2022, Carol Reedy, a linguistics professor at Oklahoma State University, ate a lentil and leek crumble from Daily Harvest, a frozen meal delivery service. Within hours, she was in the emergency room with excruciating abdominal pain. Days later, after a second, even worse episode, doctors told her she needed her gallbladder removed. The organ was permanently damaged. Carol’s friend Lisa found the clue on Reddit: hundreds of other people who ate the same crumble were also showing up in ERs with liver dysfunction and gallbladder failure. The culprit was not a bad batch of lentils. It was a brand-new food additive called Terraflour, made from the seed of a tara tree, that had never before been used in food in the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not know it was in the food supply until people started losing organs.

The loophole that swallowed the law

The story of how Terraflour got into food begins in 1958, when Congress passed the Food Additives Amendment. The law required companies to prove new additives were safe before putting them on store shelves. But it included an exemption for substances “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS. The idea was that the FDA should not have to waste time reviewing the safety of sugar, flour, or a whole banana before a company could use them in a muffin.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:23) **Carol's mysterious illness** - Linguistics professor Carol Reedy describes her sudden, agonizing stomach pain and emergency room visits after a weekend trip.
2 (03:26) **The hidden culprit emerges** - Carol and others across the US were simultaneously experiencing acute liver failure, eventually linked to a new, secret food additive.
3 (07:34) **The core problem: The "innocent until proven guilty" system** - The US food additive system operates on a principle where new chemicals can be used first, and only removed if they cause harm.
4 (10:16) **The origin of food safety laws** - The FDA was created in 1906, but its early focus was on disclosure and preventing adulteration, not rigorous pre-market safety testing.
5 (14:59) **The birth of the "GRAS" loophole** - The 1958 law was too slow, so a loophole was created for ingredients "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS), like sugar or bananas.
6 (17:20) **The "take back" provision and secret door #3** - Companies can notify the FDA of a new GRAS ingredient, but if the FDA raises safety concerns, the company can simply withdraw the notification.
7 (18:30) **The loophole has swallowed the law** - 99% of new chemicals in the US food supply have entered through the GRAS loophole, not the rigorous FDA approval process.

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Show Notes

99% of chemicals in our food right now were added without FDA approval. Many were added in secret, through a sneaky loophole built into the 1958 Food Additives Amendment.

It was supposed to require FDA approval for new additives. But food companies and chemical makers found a workaround. And the FDA formally okayed the loophole in the 90s — in the process bringing attention to a loophole to the loophole.

The FDA has essentially admitted it doesn’t have the capacity to verify the safety of new food chemicals. So they leave it up to food companies and chemical makers to declare their brand new chemicals are safe. These chemicals are used in everything from chocolate and smoked fish, to tea bags, protein drinks, popcorn, and seeds.

So, how’d the loophole get there, and what does it tell us about the priority the U.S. places on safety versus speed and innovation? And, how much can one lawyer do about it?

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This episode was hosted by Sarah Gonzalez, produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, edited by Jess Jiang, fact checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Robert Rodrguez with help from Kwesi Lee. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.

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