Does FDA approval makes a food item really "SAFE" !

FDA has approved a number of food items as "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS in short). Recognizing something as safe does not mean that it really is. When a food certification agency recognizes something as safe then there are a number of clauses attached to it, such as how much you should eat in proportion to per pound of your body weight. But reality is that nobody cares for that. We just eat what we find tasty and eat it till we feel full.
We the people just do blind faith without trying to know the reality. FDA is no god, who can inspect every aspect of a food item on all categories of people ranging from kids to senior citizens or a pregnant women.

FDA approval means that the FDA has decided the benefits of the approved item outweigh the potential risks for the item's planned use.

If we look at the above statement then it clearly means that a FDA approved food item might have some potential risks. One more thing is the planned use. What is that planned use ? Planned use is how much you should eat per pound of your body weight, or up to what temperature it can be cooked, or in how much time it should be consumed after cooking. There are so many conditions connected to a FDA approved food item that you can easily be a victim of its potential risks.

Most of the fast foods items contain ingredients which you don't know and don't care about their potential risks. Some of such ingredients include trans fat, artificial sweeteners and Monosodium Glutamate (MSG).

When you cook a food, you know the ingredients you used and you also know that none of them would harm you. Did you ever think that shelf life of a home cooked food is never more than a few days even if you put it in a fridge. But shelf life of packed food ranges from weeks to months. There must be something in it to not let it be inedible after so much time. There are preservatives and artificial ingredients to do so. You don't hesitate in consuming those ingredients thinking that its approved by FDA and don't think even once about the potential risks. Even if the potential risks are less, you are still prone to them by consuming those packed food items everyday.

How to save yourself from potential risks of FDA approved food items ?
Most of us blindly believe that FDA approval is guarantee of a food product being safe for use before the expiry date mentioned on the package. Instead of getting fresh fruits and vegetables directly from some garden, we prefer the packed food. Different companies involved in marketing of packaged food use preservatives and artificial ingredients to increase the shelf life of these products. FDA try to do its best, but every aspect of a food item can't be checked. When it comes to rules, even the consumers don't follow them completely. Sometimes we eat more then the recommended serving and sometime we use the packet for days after opening and don't care till how much time it should be consumed after opening. If we follow the rules then we can save ourselves from potential risks. Another way to completely save yourself is by being natural. Try to eat fresh fruit and vegetables. Instead of eating the packed fast food, try to cook something at home and try to have your own kitchen garden.

We humans first made artificial ingredients and then made agencies to find if these products harm us or not. After researching a lot and spending millions of dollars, these agencies come to conclusion that benefits of the item outweigh the potential risks, so it should be approved. All such things seems to help only in marketing of these products.