Here's a fun fact: the FDA can't tell you exactly how many ingredients are in your food. The estimate ranges somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000, which is the kind of precision you'd expect from a wild guess, not a regulatory agency.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid out the problem during a recent CBS News "60 Minutes" interview. He's preparing to take a hard look at ultra-processed foods, and his main argument is that Americans are essentially eating blind under a system that dates back nearly seven decades.

The GRAS Loophole That Ate Food Regulation

The culprit is a 67-year-old exemption for ingredients deemed "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS for short. In theory, it's a reasonable idea: if experts broadly agree something is harmless, manufacturers can use it without waiting for FDA approval. In practice, Kennedy told correspondent Bill Whitaker, it's become a self-regulation free-for-all. "There is no way for any American to know if a product is safe if it is ultra processed," he said.

Things got worse in 1997 when the system shifted to voluntary notifications. Kennedy says industry "hijacked" what was once a narrow exemption and used it to add "thousands upon thousands" of ingredients without federal oversight. He pointed out that Europe permits only a few hundred legal additives by comparison.

Nobody Can Even Define What We're Talking About

Adding to the confusion, there's no official federal definition of "ultra-processed food." The FDA and Department of Agriculture are working on one, but in the meantime most researchers use the NOVA classification system from the University of São Paulo. That framework defines ultra-processed items as industrial formulations made mostly from refined ingredients and additives designed to boost flavor, texture or shelf life.

Kennedy Wants Transparency, Not Bans

Kennedy said he thinks he can strengthen oversight with President Donald Trump's support, but he's not threatening to outlaw anything. "I'm not saying that we're going to regulate ultra-processed food," he told "60 Minutes." "Our job is to make sure that everybody understands what they're getting, to have an informed public."

Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler appeared on the same broadcast and echoed Kennedy's worries. He said four decades of exposure to "energy-dense, highly palatable, rapidly absorbable, ultra-processed foods" have "altered our metabolism and have resulted in the greatest increase in chronic disease in our history."

Since joining Trump's Cabinet, Kennedy has made whole and minimally processed foods central to his "Make America Healthy Again" push. He's already released new dietary guidelines that flip the traditional food pyramid upside down and minimize refined grains and packaged foods.