Consumers are exposed to hundreds of chemicals in their food every day—some added as ingredients and additives, others that migrate in from the packaging and equipment your food touches on its way to you. Many are harmless. But many aren’t, and a growing body of science shows that when several chemicals harm the same organ or system, their effects add up. That’s known as a cumulative effect.
A 1958 law already requires the FDA to weigh these combined effects when it regulates chemicals in food. The agency wrote rules to do it in 1959 and then took no notable enforcement action until this year.
A new report from Consumer Reports (CR) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) lays out that record and the science behind cumulative health effects, including how these chemicals get into our food in the first place. It makes the case for what the FDA must do to keep your food safe.