Food Additives Amendment of 1958

The Food Additives Amendment of 1958 was a response to concerns about the safety of new food additives, establishing an exemption from the "food additive" definition for substances "generally recognized as safe" by scientific experts. The amendment also introduced the Delaney clause, which prohibited the use of substances causing cancer in man or animal as food additives. The clause applied to pesticides in processed foods, but not in raw foods. The Delaney clause was invoked in 1959 after the FDA determined aminotriazole, a herbicide, to be a carcinogen, leading to a significant decline in cranberry sales. The FDA later developed the "de minimis" exception, allowing the use of carcinogenic additives if they posed a negligible risk, defined as less than 1 additional cancer case in every 1,000,000 exposed individuals.learn more on wikipedia