Title: generally regarded as safe
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - generally regarded as safe
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.15730
Status: current

Definition
Phrase used to describe the USFDA philosophy that justifies approval of food additives that may not meet the usual test criteria for safety but have been used extensively and have not demonstrated that they cause any harm to consumers.

Source
- PAC, 2007, 79, 1153. 'Glossary of terms used in toxicology, 2nd edition (IUPAC Recommendations 2007)' on page 1227 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac200779071153)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15730/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15730/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15730/xml

Citation: Citation: 'generally regarded as safe' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.15730
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-07-23T14:57:32+00:00