The FDA in February revealed its 2026 to-do list for the food side of the agency. Titled “Human Foods Program 2026 Priority Deliverables,” it targets food dyes and other questionable ingredients and the GRAS system of ingredient approvals and implies an effort to somehow deal with ultraprocessed foods – among other priorities.
It’s a 3,600-word document viewable here. Below we summarize it in 1,000 words.
“In 2026, the FDA intends to make significant strides to protect and promote the health and well-being of all Americans,” the announcement began. “In 2026, FDA will continue to implement multi-year initiatives that advance HFP’s [Human Foods Program’s] vision and mission. Those plans will build upon a considerable body of success that has already been achieved during 2025, such as beginning processes to:
* Remove petroleum-based dyes from Americans’ food, and introduce new food dyes, including those from natural sources, to replace them.
* Rigorously review and, if appropriate, ban a range of food additives about which safety concerns have been raised.
* Reform current regulations to more effectively regulate the safety of food substances and increase transparency about substances in the U.S. food supply.
* Conduct a comprehensive review of the nutrient requirements for infant formula for the first time in decades (part of Operation Stork Speed).
* Create a Front of Package nutrition labeling program that will help consumers quickly and easily identify healthier dietary choices.
* Expand the inspection of food processing facilities by leveraging state inspection resources to complement FDA inspections.
* Reduce child exposure to contaminants in food, such as lead and cadmium.
* Address growing concerns around ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) given their association with numerous chronic diseases.
* Increase transparency in FDA’s regulatory decisions and enforcement activities.
“HFP developed this document to highlight the goals we will work to prioritize in 2026, which include delivering on [Health & Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy’s] MAHA agenda, to make the U.S. food supply safer and its population healthier.”
It outlines three broad “risk management activities” for the Human Foods Program:
* Food Chemical Safety: Ensuring that exposure to chemicals, including both additives and contaminants, that occur in foods is safe, as well as advancing dietary supplement safety and supporting and effectively regulating food ingredient innovation.
* Nutrition: Elevating and empowering action on nutrition science, policy and initiatives to help reduce the prevalence of diet-related chronic diseases, driving consumer awareness and education and ensuring the nutritional adequacy and safety of infant formula.
* Microbiological Food Safety: Advancing strategies to prevent pathogen-related foodborne illness in close collaboration with other regulatory agencies, states, industry and other stakeholders.
The agency promises progress this year in three areas, each with a long to-do list of its own.
1. Food chemical safety
“Protecting the food supply from unsafe chemicals and additives is a key part of the administration’s Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy,” the announcement said. “The 2025 initiatives in this area will be greatly expanded in 2026 by advancing these key deliverables” (they have been greatly shortened here; for the full statement, see the FDA document):
* GRAS Reform: In 2026, FDA will publish a proposed regulation to require the submission to FDA of GRAS notices for all new substances claimed to be GRAS.
* Post-Market Safety Reviews of Marketed Food Chemicals: HFP will continue reassessments of chemicals used in food, starting with safety reviews of those that are most concerning to consumers, e.g., phthalates, propylparaben, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), among others.
* Microplastics: HFP will carry-out research to identify methods that accurately and reproducibly detect, quantify and characterize microplastics in human food.
* Closer to Zero: HFP will establish action levels for cadmium and inorganic arsenic in baby and toddler foods. HFP will also issue guidance on preventive controls to minimize chemical hazards in all foods.
* Adoption of Natural Color Additives: HFP will publish draft guidance on when fruit- and vegetable-derived juices qualify as color additives. HFP will also complete reviews of additional natural colors and prioritize evaluation of any new natural color submissions.
* Consumer Exposure to Contaminants in Food: HFP will continue to study exposure to certain heavy metals, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other contaminants in food.
* Regulation of New Dietary Ingredients
* Dietary Supplement Oversight Modernization
* Guidelines for Caffeine Labeling
* Allergen Labeling: This bullet point mentioned all allergens but specified gluten.
2. Reducing Chronic Disease Through Better Nutrition
“The MAHA Strategy relies heavily upon FDA’s nutrition program to help Americans build better diets and reduce the toll of diet-related diseases such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease and certain cancers. The following 2026 deliverables are expected to significantly advance that strategy”:
* Ultraprocessed Foods
* Infant Formula Safety
* NIH-FDA Nutrition Regulatory Science Program: “Experts will design a research agenda and begin studies to better understand how and why UPFs harm people’s health, how certain food additives might affect metabolic health and the role of maternal and infant dietary exposures on subsequent health outcomes.”
* Front-of-Package (FOP) Nutrition Labeling: HFP will sift through the “tens of thousands” of public comments received last year and will “prepare options for leadership to make decisions on the content of a final regulation.”
* “Healthy” Claim Implementation: Making sure what the 2025 rule allows aligns with the recently released 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans plus possibly a symbol to depict the ”healthy” claim.
* Food Standards of Identity: Mostly eliminating outdated standards of identity.
* Added Sugar Reduction
* Sodium Reduction
* Food Labeling for Online Grocery Shopping
* Guidelines on Direct Marketing of Certain Foods to Children
3. Microbiological Food Safety
* Food Inspection Coverage by Leveraging State Capacity: As we reported earlier, FDA is relying on state partners to carry out routine food safety systems inspections.
* National Regulatory and Laboratory Training System
* Oversight and Safety of Imported Food: In addition to improving its own work in this area, FDA will “leverage foreign competent authorities charged with the safety of food offered for import into the United States.”
* Imported Seafood Safety
* Fresh and Processed Produce Safety
* Dairy and Egg Safety
* Recall Process Modernization
* Food Traceability
* Food Code and Retail Program Standards
* Tech-Enabled Advances in Risk Management
About the Author
Dave Fusaro
Editor in Chief
Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.