does fda approve food and if yes, does it need to approve all variations (eg new winter edition of red bull)?
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The FDA is a regulatory body. They’re not out there approving every possible food you could produce. They simply issue regulations that companies have to follow and then do audits or respond to complaints to enforce those regulations.
The FDA doesn’t approve foods writ large. Using your Red Bull example — the new Winter Edition of Red Bull likely uses a bunch of ingredients that we already generally know are safe, just in a different mixture/amounts that other foods on the market. As an extreme example, if Campbell’s soup had a veggie soup with onions, celery, and tomatoes, it would be ridiculous for them to get approval to add carrots. We already know carrots are safe!
Where the FDA comes in is for additives to food that aren’t already generally recognized as safe. So things like color additives, new chemicals being used for flavor, new types of packaging, etc. that come in contact with food *can* require FDA approval.
As the other posted said, the FDA otherwise typically has laws that it can enforce around things like nutrition labeling, food safety, infant formula, food-borne illness outbreaks, etc. From the food side, they are mostly a reactionary body, whereas on the drug side they are an approval authority.
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