Generally recognized as safe
United States government designation for food additives
Generally recognized as safe (GRAS) is a United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designation that a chemical or substance added to food is considered safe by experts under the conditions of its intended use. An ingredient with a GRAS designation is exempted from the usual Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) food additive tolerance requirements.
Some examples of substances recognized as GRAS include ascorbic acid (vitamin C), citric acid, and salt, which are all commonly used in food preservation and flavoring. The concept of food additives being "generally recognized as safe" was first described in the Food Additives Amendment of 1958, and all additives introduced after this time had to be evaluated by new standards.
Affirmation and notification
GRAS substances can be self-affirmed upon determination by qualified non-governmental experts, with or without FDA notification, or the FDA itself can affirm:
Self-affirmation without FDA notification. The manufacturer of this chemical or substance had performed all necessary research, including the formation of an expert panel to review safety concerns, and is prepared to use these findings to defend its product's GRAS status. FDA is not notified.
Self-affirmation with FDA notification. The manufacturer has performed all the aforementioned due diligence, and submitted a GRAS notification to inform the FDA of a determination that the use of a substance is GRAS. Following evaluation, the FDA provides three possible responses: 1. FDA does not question the basis for the notifier's GRAS determination, 2.
“Generally recognized as safe” enters the record as united States government designation for food additives. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Generally, recognized and safe can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Generally recognized as safe” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Generally, recognized and safe provides the most credible route into that argument.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1041116. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1958.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Generally recognized as safe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.