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“The US FDA’s continued allowance of phthalates in food packaging flies in the face of good science and  provides further demonstration that the agency is simply unwilling to fulfill its duty to protect our food from unsafe contaminants. It defies all reasonableness that chemicals banned over a decade ago from toys because of the harm arising from children mouthing them can instead be allowed to directly contaminate our children’s food. It only adds insult to injury that the agency sat on the requests for six years, only to now claim that it needs updated information submitted to it, despite the fact that the agency is required under law to collect such information on its own.  

Despite the FDA’s ineptitude, we will continue to fight to eliminate phthalates and other toxic chemicals from our food. Defend Our Health worked to secure the first state-level ban of phthalates in food packaging in Maine in 2019, an action that has been replicated in Vermont and poised to be enacted elsewhere. Our efforts to test dairy products brought national attention to phthalates and garnered a commitment from General Mills to address phthalates across the supply chain for Annie’s brand mac n’ cheese. Ultimately, consumer pressure and state actions will succeed where the FDA has failed.”