FDA Seeks Input on a New Method for Ranking Chemicals in Food for Post-market Assessments

Constituent Update;The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released for public comment its proposed method for ranking chemicals in the food supply. This method provides a transparent, systematic, and science-based approach to determine which chemicals the agency would prioritize for post-market assessments through the agency’s post-market chemical review program. It will allow the FDA to allocate resources more efficiently, ensuring that the agency focuses on food chemicals that may present the greatest potential public health risk, including risk to sensitive populations, and are of high public concern.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released for public comment its proposed method for ranking chemicals in the food supply. This method provides a transparent, systematic, and science-based approach to determine which chemicals the agency would prioritize for post-market assessments through the agency’s post-market chemical review program. It will allow the FDA to allocate resources more efficiently, ensuring that the agency focuses on food chemicals that may present the greatest potential public health risk, including risk to sensitive populations, and are of high public concern.

Determining if a chemical—either one intentionally added to food or a contaminant that is not intentionally added—needs to be further evaluated based on new information takes a structured and science-based approach to ensure that the FDA’s reviews are most protective of the health of consumers. The method released today uses Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to determine a score for each chemical based on evaluating the information about a chemical against a pre-determined set of criteria. The method is similar in approach and criteria to one that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uses for prioritizing chemicals, but the FDA’s method takes into account factors specific to exposure from food and uses a scoring method similar to the FDA’s Risk Ranking Model for Traceability.

The FDA is committed to radical transparency as the agency develops processes for prioritizing chemicals in food for a post-market assessment. These processes will help to ensure that FDA is taking a risk-informed approach in reviewing data and information about the safety of chemicals in the food supply to protect the health of consumers.