Flavor report: Hidden ingredients

The way a food tastes and smells is important when it comes to choosing what we eat. Food companies engineer foods to ensure they taste and smell appealing by adding flavors and spices. These can be natural substances or chemicals synthesized in a laboratory. They can be a single ingredient—like vanilla extract, dried basil, or a specific chemical—or blends of many ingredients formulated and developed by professional flavorists.

Food industry hides unsafe ingredients behind vague terms like ‘flavor’

Manufacturers hide thousands of food chemicals—some deemed unsafe in other countries—from consumers and the FDA via vague ingredient labels and lax oversight.

CSPI in 2025: Advancing food safety & public health for all

Your support helped CSPI’s efforts to ban harmful food additives, safeguard infant foods, improve retail policies, and restore funds for scientific research. Thank you for making 2025 a healthier year for all!

5 things we want to see in the 2025 Dietary Guidelines

CSPI's wish list for the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for added sugars, saturated fat, sweetened beverages, alcohol consumption, low-fat milk, and more.

Congress steps into USDA’s traditional role on child nutrition standards

The FDA rarely forces manufacturers to recall dangerous medical devices, watchdog report finds

Lawmakers requested the report after a 2023 ProPublica and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette investigation revealed that the FDA had received hundreds of complaints over many years about defective breathing machines and never ordered a recall.

Titanium dioxide: Hiding in holiday treats, dairy, and more

The color additive titanium dioxide can potentially cause DNA damage but is used in Christmas treats and dairy products. Tell the dairy industry to ditch TiO2.

Why are there no EU-style food dye warning labels in the US?

The FDA says synthetic food dyes 'pose real dangers to consumers.' So why aren't we putting warning labels on products with food dye, as the EU does?

Senate votes to return whole milk to schools despite evidence on saturated fat

Fired CDC workers must be reinstated to help in infant formula outbreak policy response