RFK Jr. Blows the Lid Off Big Food’s Worst Scam

For decades, they’ve used one dirty loophole to flood our food with toxic additives, all while staying “FDA approved.”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sat down with Newsmax’s Greta Van Susteren Tuesday evening and exposed the dirtiest trick in the American food system. He says corporations hijacked an FDA loophole called “GRAS” to quietly flood our food with untested chemicals—without ever proving they were safe.

And the consequences didn’t take long to show up.

In the late 1980s and early ’90s, something strange started happening in America. Chronic illness was on the rise. Obesity rates soared. Autoimmune diseases became more common.

It felt like the health of the nation was unraveling.

According to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that wasn’t a coincidence. It was the result of a corporate takeover.

“At that time… the tobacco industry took over the food industry,” he said.

“By the early 1990s, the two biggest food companies in the world were R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris.”

The same companies that had perfected the art of chemical addiction through cigarettes were now running the food system. And Kennedy says they brought the same playbook with them.

“They began moving scientists from the endeavor of making tobacco more addictive to developing new lab ingredients that would make food addictive.”

That’s when everything changed.

What had once been real food—grown, cooked, and served—became something else entirely. A highly engineered product designed not to nourish, but to keep people hooked.

The health consequences were immediate. But behind it all, there was something even more insidious: the regulatory system meant to protect Americans had already been compromised.

“Those chemicals were largely untested because of the capture of the FDA by the food and drug industries,” Kennedy warned.

The public trusted the FDA. But the FDA, Kennedy says, had already been captured by the very industries it was supposed to regulate.

Then came the dirtiest trick of all.

Kennedy revealed how the food industry hijacked a decades-old FDA loophole—one that allowed a flood of untested chemicals into our diets.

It started back in the 1940s, when the FDA first began regulating food.

At the time, they made one reasonable exception: ingredients with a long history of safe use—like wheat, eggs, and dairy—wouldn’t need testing.

“When the FDA first began regulating foods in the 1940s, it exempted food ingredients that had been used for generations—like wheat, eggs, and dairy,” Kennedy said.

“They didn’t require testing for those.” But decades later, that narrow exemption was quietly weaponized.

“The food industry later captured that label and applied it to every new chemical they wanted to add.”

Instead of testing new additives, companies simply claimed they were “generally recognized as safe.” And the FDA, Kennedy said, went along with it.

The result? America now has more than 10,000 approved food ingredients. Europe? Just 400.

“In the U.S., chemicals are never safety tested before being added to food,” he said.

Some of those ingredients are derived from petroleum. Others mimic the flavor of strawberries or blueberries, without providing a single nutrient. And they’re not just empty calories.

“These chemicals hijack the brain and trick the body into eating more food while getting less nutrition.” That’s not just unhealthy—it’s unprecedented.

“We are now the fourth most obese country in the world,” Kennedy said, “yet for the first time in history, obesity is often accompanied by malnutrition.”

Think about that for a second.

“The people who are most obese are also malnourished. That’s never been seen before in human history.”

But Kennedy isn’t just exposing the problem—he’s taking action.

For decades, food companies have been allowed to slip harmful ingredients into our food. That may finally change.

In March, Secretary Kennedy directed the FDA to begin dismantling the very loophole that made this possible.

He instructed Acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner to “take steps to explore potential rulemaking to revise its Substances Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) Final Rule and related guidance to eliminate the self-affirmed GRAS pathway,” according to an HHS press release.

Translation: no more rubber-stamping chemicals without oversight.

HHS also announced plans to work with Congress to pass new legislation that would formally close the GRAS loophole.

As of now, the timeline for these changes remains unclear—HHS did not respond when asked how soon they plan to act.

Kennedy Takes Aim at FDA Loophole That Allows Unsafe Ingredients in Food

Kennedy wrapped it all up with a hopeful message.

“The team here is extraordinary. A lot of people are coming to HHS now because they see an intergenerational opportunity to change the way we do things, and we’re moving fast.”

He outlined several major steps already underway.

“We’ve announced a ban on all petroleum-based synthetic food dyes. We’ve changed the GRAS standards so people can’t rubber-stamp chemicals into food anymore.”

“We’re reviewing chemicals already in our food.”

“We’ve launched Operation Stork Speed to ensure mothers can get the healthiest milk for their children.”

The system was rigged. But now, the tide is turning. And this time, it’s the people—not the corporations—who are finally calling the shots.

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