In the grand pantheon of salad dressings, French dressing can be easily forgotten — a sticky, sweet, carrot-colored blend overshadowed by America’s undisputed heavyweight champion of dressings, ranch. But the federal government has shown great interest in the humble dressing, painstakingly regulating since 1950 the ingredients that it must contain and revising the rules at least five times since then. Now, the government wants to get out of the French dressing business. On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration said it was proposing to revoke its definition and standard of identity for French dressing — effectively erasing the government-sanctioned list of ingredients at the request of an industry group, the Association for Dressings & Sauces. “The standard does not appear necessary to ensure that the product meets consumer expectations, and the F.D.A.

Source: New York Times December 20, 2020 10:52 UTC