Were it not for added flavors—be they synthetic or derived from natural substances—there would be no processed food industry, as most foods would quite simply be unpalatable.

As it stands, flavor companies develop additives that not only taste good, but that are “craveable” if not outright addictive.

The fact that processed foods contain added ingredients that aren’t necessarily food isn’t secret knowledge. But would it surprise you to find out that flavors added to processed foods are “regulated” by the industry itself?

This is the classic case of the fox guarding the hen house. As explained in the featured video, a legal loophole may have introduced a huge number of flavors and other additives of questionable safety into the American food supply.

Who’s Responsible for the Safety of Food Flavors in the US?

Since 1960, the organization responsible for the safety of flavor additives used in foods for the American market is the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA), which in recent years has been increasingly criticized for the lack of transparency in its safety decisions.

As the name implies, this is an industry trade group, and it has the power to designate ingredients as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS), which automatically exempts them from the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) formal approval process for food additives.

As noted by the Center for Public Integrity,1,2 this trade group has no in-house employees, no office, and a very small budget. It’s actually managed by Verto Solutions, a scientific consulting, communications, and government relations services firm based in Washington, D.C.

In addition to FEMA, Verto Solutions caters to other trade associations, including the International Association of Color Manufacturers, the International Organization of the Flavor Industry and Pickle Packers International.

Center for Public Integrity writes:3

“In recent years, activist groups and social media campaigns have been demanding that food companies become more accountable to consumers and transparent about what they are adding to their products.

But most Americans know as little about the decidedly low-profile Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association and its safety assessments as they do about the more than 2,700 flavoring chemicals it has declared safe during the past five decades.

Moreover, public interest groups say the FDA’s recent response to a Freedom of Information Act request suggests that even the government may be blind to the science behind many of those flavors.

Much is at stake: The flavor industry’s system of self-policing helps it avoid government oversight, potentially saving companies significant amounts of time and money…

The flavor industry makes its safety evaluations ‘behind closed doors’ and then asks consumers to trust them, said Caroline Cox, research director for the Center for Environmental Health.

‘We just have enough experience with all kinds of toxic chemicals to know not to want to trust an evaluation if someone says, ‘Trust us, it’s all OK.’’”

The situation is quite different in Europe, where food flavors and other additives must undergo an independent safety review by the European Food Safety Authority, an agency funded by the European Union.