Editor's Plate: Make FDA Great (and Authoritative) Again
President Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Marty Makary have taken their victory laps over the past two months as one food or beverage processor after another fell in line and agreed to remove petroleum-based colors. Now it's time for that holy trinity to return the favor and strong-arm the states into repealing laws that ban not just colors but, in some cases, 50 ingredients. Or pre-empt them.
This federal republic setup is tricky at times – states should and do have some autonomy, including the right to legislate some things that uniquely suit their citizens. But the Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution prevents states from enacting laws that interfere with interstate commerce, giving Congress the right "to regulate commerce ... among the several states."
A patchwork of potentially 50 slightly varying state laws banning or controlling different ingredients would certainly upend interstate commerce.
Everyone – including the federal government and an increasing number of food & beverage processors – now appears in agreement that seven certain colors should be gone. Brominated vegetable oil, too. Maybe butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) should go, too. When, for all of those, is another question.
Oklahoma is considering banning aspartame and sodium benzoate. Titanium dioxide will be forbidden in school foods in Arizona but not in neighboring California. Some Indiana legislator wants to get rid of high-fructose corn syrup. Even just warning labels would be onerous, as enacted in Texas and neighboring Louisiana – which have slightly different requirements.
It's not right that the Trump administration is pressuring certain states over liberal immigration laws or diversity, equity and inclusion programs. As I said, states have rights. Why not apply that kind of federal pressure – and enforce, rather than defy the Constitution for a change – and get all the states on board with a unified, national ingredient policy?
MFGA! Make FDA great (and the authority) again.
Email Dave at [email protected]