Sunday, 13 July 2025

FDA Announces Tool For Tracking Chemical Contaminants In Foods

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday unveiled the “Chemical Contaminants Transparency Tool (CCT Tool).”

The online searchable database will provide a “consolidated list of contaminant levels” to “evaluate potential health risks of contaminants in human foods.”

“HHS is committed to radical transparency to give Americans authentic, informed consent about what they are eating,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.

“This new Chemical Contaminants Transparency Tool is a critical step for industry to Make America Healthy Again,” he added.

Per FDA:

To protect public health and help industry market products that are safe for U.S. consumers, the FDA establishes or utilizes tolerances, action levels and guidance levels for some contaminants in food. These are levels above which the agency may find that a food may be unsafe but do not represent permissible levels of contamination. The FDA uses these levels to help minimize or prevent chemical hazards in food.

“Ideally there would be no contaminants in our food supply, but chemical contaminants may occur in food when they are present in the growing, storage or processing environments,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner, M.D., M.P.H. “Because many of the most nutritious foods can also contain contaminants, consumers should eat a variety of nutrient-dense foods across and within the main food groups of vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy and protein to help protect from possible exposure effects.”

The CCT Tool, which provides contaminant levels in one location for ease of searching, is one of the outcomes of the FDA’s initiative to modernize food chemical safety. The consolidated list includes the contaminant name, commodity, contaminant level type (e.g., action level, guidance level), level value and reference (e.g., Code of Federal Regulations, FDA Guidance for Industry). The list can also be filtered by contaminant type.

The FDA will continue to monitor the food supply by testing foods through several different programs. Under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, the FDA is committed to promoting radical transparency to make sure all Americans know what is in their food and Make America Healthy Again.

From Food Safety Magazine:

Created for ease of reference and to help industry market products that are safe for consumers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now offers an online, searchable database of consolidated contaminant levels that are used to evaluate the potential health risks of chemicals in human foods. The Chemical Contaminants Transparency Tool can be accessed here.

The transparency tool includes contaminant levels for “poisonous or deleterious substances” that have been established in various FDA guidance documents and regulations for industry. Contaminant levels listed in the transparency tool include tolerances, action levels, guidance levels, derived intervention levels, recommended maximum levels, and advisory levels.


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