Medicine: Food Additives: Blessing or Bane?

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In the two months since the cyclamate ban, it has become clear that far too many additives were used and allowed on the GRAS list without sufficient testing. Moreover, an automatic guillotine such as that applied to cyclamates is too crude an instrument for determining acceptability. The food industry obviously has to use some additives to keep its products from spoiling and—in the case of such staples as bread, milk and iodized salt—to give them maximum nutritive and health-protective values. Just as clearly, the public demands low-calorie sweeteners as well as precooked heat-and-serve meals. It is well within the competence of chemists and manufacturers to meet society's demands safely. At the same time, the FDA needs the unquestioned authority and financial resources to ensure that the world's greatest consuming society can be far better informed—and protected. Last week's reorganization of the FDA, with the prospect of an increased budget, should make that possible.

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