Chemically Named Europe’s wine grape growers are complaining that EU regulations prohibit them from using the fungicide sodium hydrogen carbonate. It was approved as a basic substance but then a manufacturer incorporated it as the active ingredient in a manufactured product and EU regulations required farmers to purchase the more expensive active ingredient rather than the basic substance.  Sodium hydrogen carbonate, also known as baking soda will likely get a reprieve but the case reinforces some of the absurdities in food safety laws. This flawed criticism is now also the case for food ingredients in the U.S. that have historically been categorized as generally regarded a safe (GRAS) but are now vilified by supporters of RFK, J...

TAGS – North America, Macroeconomics