The sneaky way companies get new chemicals into our food
Planet Money
NPR
4.6 • 30.5K Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2026
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It was supposed to require FDA approval for new additives. But food companies and chemical makers found a workaround. And the FDA formally okayed the loophole in the 90s — in the process bringing attention to a loophole to the loophole.
The FDA has essentially admitted it doesn’t have the capacity to verify the safety of new food chemicals. So they leave it up to food companies and chemical makers to declare their brand new chemicals are safe. These chemicals are used in everything from chocolate and smoked fish, to tea bags, protein drinks, popcorn, and seeds.
So, how’d the loophole get there, and what does it tell us about the priority the U.S. places on safety versus speed and innovation? And, how much can one lawyer do about it?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Planet Money from NPR. |
| 0:05.8 | If there's one way that Carol Reedy has always thought of herself, it's exuberant. |
| 0:11.7 | Exuberant, exuberant, yes. |
| 0:13.5 | Even on my tired days, I'm exuberant. |
| 0:16.4 | No, some people might call her annoying, her word. |
| 0:20.0 | Girl, they can't handle all this sometimes. |
| 0:22.1 | But Carol doesn't mind. |
| 0:23.4 | If it's not for you, just walk along. |
| 0:25.2 | It's fine. |
| 0:26.4 | Recently, though, Carol and her friends have been describing her in a different way. |
| 0:30.9 | Basically an orchid now. |
| 0:33.4 | An orchid. |
| 0:34.4 | Just like really fragile, you know? |
| 0:37.4 | Very sensitive and very delicate, like in all senses of the word. an orchid, just like really fragile, you know? |
| 0:41.1 | Very sensitive and very delicate, like in all senses of the word. |
| 0:43.2 | And she wasn't always this way. |
| 0:46.4 | Before that, Sarah, I was killing it. |
| 0:48.9 | I would go and do my research in Morocco. |
| 0:52.4 | I was running around doing everything, eating everything, literally. |
| 0:55.8 | Carol is a linguistics professor at Oklahoma State University, originally from Nebraska. And when she moved to Oklahoma, that's about when things |
| 1:01.9 | changed for her. She had just made this new friend, Lisa, and they decided to do a little trip |
| 1:06.7 | together. We went to this little Airbnb and on a pecan farm. She just wanted to hang out with me. |
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