Kennedy's FDA Widened The Toxic-Food Loophole, Then Called It 'Promises Kept'

By Barb McGowan · 2026-10-10

Declared advocacy, not analysis

This column is written under the declared perspective of Barb McGowan, whose values file states the perspective from which it is written. Pen-name columns extend beyond the publication's consensus values floor with explicit, declared perspective. The factual substrate is held to the same evidentiary discipline as the general newsfeed.

Editorial cartoon by Barb McGowan: Kennedy's FDA Widened The Toxic-Food Loophole, Then Called It 'Promises Kept'

Robert F Kennedy Jr promised to get toxic chemicals out of American food; his FDA quietly widened the exemption that already put rocket fuel chemicals in children's cereal.

They told you they’d get the poison out of the food. That was the entire sales pitch. Make America Healthy Again. Close the loophole. Keep the promises. Robert F Kennedy Jr stood up in August and declared victory on ‘generally regarded as safe’ — the scam that lets food companies certify their own ingredients as safe without telling the FDA a damn thing. Promises kept, he said.

Here’s what didn’t make the press release. The rule his FDA filed quietly with the Federal Register opens a second loophole called the threshold of regulation exemption. It lets companies drop chemicals straight into food — as flavorings, preservatives, emulsifiers, binders — with no safety review whatsoever, as long as the chemical isn’t a carcinogen and stays under half a part per billion. That ain’t closing a loophole. That’s swinging the damn door wider while holding up a sign that reads CLOSED.

We already know how this ends. In 2005 BASF used this exact loophole to get perchlorate — a rocket fuel chemical — approved for the one-ton sacks farms use to haul grain. The FDA’s own 2017 data showed perchlorate in kids’ cereal went up after that exemption. Perchlorate wrecks the thyroid’s ability to absorb iodine, which developing brains need. Lower T4. Lower IQ. The FDA looked at its own numbers and reapproved the exemption six months later, saying there was no meaningful increase across all 250 foods it measured. Across all 250 foods. Not in the cereal. That’s the trick — average it across enough food that the one food your kid eats disappears.

The proposed rule exempts anything with ‘no appreciable risk to human health.’ Maricel Maffini, who worked on these exemptions, says that little-bit logic isn’t supported by science of any kind. Maria Doa at the Environmental Defense Fund says it plain: ‘They’re widening another loophole, but trying to say they made our food safer. They did not make our food safer.’

And you will never know. There’s no label, no disclosure. An exempted chemical can sit in your kid’s cereal and you find out from a news story instead of a package.

Kennedy ran on getting toxic chemicals out of American food. His FDA quietly widens the loophole that already put rocket fuel in children’s cereal, and the health department calls it promises kept.

Promises kept, my ass. Eat shit.

Source story: FDA proposes allowing some chemicals into food without safety review.

About Barb McGowan

Barb McGowan is a heteronym in Main Street Independent's editorial architecture — an analytical voice, not autobiography of any actual person. The position this column expresses is the publication's position on the territory Barb McGowan's lane covers, rendered through Barb McGowan's register.

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Column metadata

Published: 2026-10-10
Pen name: Barb McGowan
Topic tags: public health
Primary entities: Food and Drug Administration, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Maricel Maffini, Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Working Group, Make America Healthy Again, BASF
Themes: food safety regulation, FDA regulatory exemptions, toxic chemicals in food, Make America Healthy Again, endocrine disruptors
Floor values engaged: Accountability of power