The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing whether a preservative used in many food items is safe. The preservative butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) has been listed as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) by the agency since 1958. BHA is used to prevent fats and oils from spoiling.
The review is part of the agency’s move to assess chemicals used in food supplies, an initiative launched in May 2025.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explained that BHA, despite being considered “safe,” has been “identified by the National Toxicology Program as ‘reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen’ based on animal studies.”
“This reassessment marks the end of the ‘trust us’ era in food safety,” Kennedy added. “If BHA cannot meet today’s gold-standard science for its current uses, we will remove it from the food supply and continue cleaning up food chemicals—starting where children face the greatest exposure.”
“We are taking decisive action to ensure that chemicals in our food supply are not causing harm,” said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. “The scientific community has raised significant concerns about some chemicals currently in the food supply. Once we complete our assessment of BHA, we expect to conduct similar assessments for butylated hydroxytoluene, a synthetic preservative known as BHT, and azodicarbonamide — a chemical used in yoga mats and also used as a dough conditioner.”
The review of food chemicals aligns with priorities in the MAHA Commission’s Strategy Report, which stated that the FDA will “continue to develop and implement an enhanced evidence-based systematic process for the post-market assessment of chemicals in food, including food additives, color additives, ‘Generally Recognized as Safe’ (GRAS) substances, substances used in contact with food, and chemicals present as unintentional (for example, environmental) contaminants.”
