Renee Dufault

Renee Dufault is an American research scientist and whistleblower. She is a former Food and Drug Administration researcher and the founder of the Food Ingredient and Health Research Institute. She published a study about mercury in high fructose corn syrup.

Education Dufault earned her Doctorate of Health Education (D.H.Ed.) degree from A.T. Still University in Missouri, and a B.S. in the Environmental Sciences from the University of California Davis (UCD).

Career Dufault served in the Army and Navy before transferring to the United States Public Health Service.

During her federal career, Dufault worked for the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, Shoshone-Paiute Tribes and the Food and Drug Administration.

In 2004, Dufault began researching the mercury cycle on behalf of the FDA, which involved, analyzing a number of food products listing HFCS as either the first or second ingredient on the label. Dufault enlisted the help of several colleagues to test whether high fructose corn syrup or products containing high fructose corn syrup contained trace amounts of mercury. Dufault then sent additional virgin samples of HFCS to two different laboratories, in order to independently confirm her results.

In October 2005, Dufault, and her extramural academic colleagues presented their preliminary findings to the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). At that time, Dufault was asked to halt the investigation. In 2006, Dufault attempted to publish the findings of her research on mercury levels contained within HFCS, but was denied the usage of the federal extramural data. This model describes the dietary factors that impact gene behavior in the human body to bring about conditions of autism or ADHD.

Dufault also developed a nutritional epigenetics model for autism in 2009 concerning the impact of dietary mercury (Hg) exposure on the metallothionein (MT) gene when children zinc (Zn) deficient. The model was used in a pilot study in 2024.

After leaving the FDA in 2008, Dufault founded the Food Ingredient and Health Research Institute, a non-profit that advocates for food ingredient safety, better food, and nutrition education and research.