Keywords
obesity, economics, sugar, artificial sweeteners, saccharin, aspartame, sucralose, stevia, Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Document Type
Article
Abstract
For more than a century, the Food and Drug Administration has claimed to protect the public health. During that time, it has actually been placing corporate profits above consumer safety. Nowhere is this corruption more evident than in the approval of artificial sweeteners. FDA leaders' close ties to the very industry they were supposed to be regulating present a startling picture. Ignoring warnings from both independent scientists and their own review panels, FDA decision makers let greed guide their actions. They approved carcinogenic sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame, and sucralose while simultaneously banning the natural herb stevia because it would cut into industry profits. This Article proposes two reforms that can end these corrupt practices and take industry out of the FDA. By strengthening conflict of interest regulations and preventing companies from participating in safety trials, the FDA will be able to gain the independence it needs in order to regulate the food and drug industries.
Recommended Citation
Iuliano, J. (2021). Killing Us Sweetly: How to Take Industry out of the FDA. Journal of Food Law & Policy, 6(1). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jflp/vol6/iss1/4