Companies can say their food ingredients are safe all by themselves—no need to ask the government for permission—just by deciding they’re harmless based on their own research or common use.

Food companies can decide for themselves that a new ingredient is safe to put in food, without asking the FDA for approval or telling the public how they made that decision.

Companies can decide on their own that a new food ingredient is safe to eat, without having to show proof to the government or tell the public what data they used to make that call.

Companies that make ingredients for baby formula often use a special U.S. government shortcut called GRAS to prove their ingredients are safe for babies, without needing full FDA approval.

The FDA lets food companies add certain ingredients to food without checking them first, as long as a group of trusted scientists agree those ingredients are safe based on how the safety info was gathered.

Just because a food ingredient is considered safe to eat doesn’t mean it’s safe to breathe in, especially when it’s heated up in a vape pen — the safety rules for eating and breathing are totally different.