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The Trump administration has announced its intention to eliminate synthetic dyes used to improve color in common foods such as candies and cereals.
During a press conference on Tuesday, the Secretary of Health and Social Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“We are going to get rid of dyes, then one by one, we will get rid of each ingredient and additive in the food that we can legally approach,” he said.
The Food and Drug Administration will take several measures to eliminate synthetic dyes. The FDA commissioner, Marty Makary, announced that the agency will work with industry to voluntarily eliminate six colors commonly used by the end of next year. It will also start the process of banning two other dyes, red citrus fruits n ° 2 and orange B; And it asks food companies to speed up the calendar to remove the red color previously prohibited n ° 3.
“For 50 years, American children have lived more and more in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals,” said Makary, citing studies that have linked synthetic colors to ADHD and other health problems. “The release of oil-based food colors outside the food supply is not a miracle solution that will instantly make American children healthy, but this is an important step,” he said.
There is no mandate for the food industry to comply with the elimination of the six synthetic dyes, but Kennedy said that “industry has voluntarily agreed”. He said that a number of states have adopted laws prohibiting certain food ingredients and that food companies told him that they wanted national leadership in this area. “They want clear directives,” he said.
Melissa Hockstad, president and chief executive officer of the Consumer Brands Association, which represents the manufacturers of American packaged foods, defended the current ingredients of the industry:
“The ingredients used in the American food supply have been rigorously studied … and proved to be sure,” she said in a statement.
She added that her group appreciates that federal health agencies “reaffirmed their leadership in response to the myriad of state activities in the food regulation space”.
She did not specify if the members of the group would comply with the new proposal of the administration, but she noted that the industry was increasingly used alternatives to synthetic dyes.
Studies have linked food coloring to behavioral and cognitive problems in children. When the California’s Environmental Protection Agency examined the body of research on synthetic dyes in 2021, it revealed that the dyes consumed in food can have a negative impact on children’s behavior.
The Watchdog Group Center for Science in the Public Interest prompted to ban synthetic dyes for years. Thomas Galligan, principal scientist at CSPI, said that he had hoped that FDA’s announcement on Tuesday would be a ban on synthetic dyes, not a voluntary agreement to bring the food industry to cooperate.
“The FDA has the power to ban them squarely if they wanted it,” he told NPR. “So it’s a bit of a strange announcement.”
Galligan warns that the voluntary agreements have already dropped. “It is worth pointing out that food companies have made promises like this before. They said they were going to get rid of these food shades or other additives in a certain period, then they regularly denied these promises.”
He notes that the two dyes that will be prohibited, Citrus Red 2 and Orange B, are “very, very rarely used. They have essentially been abandoned by the food industry”.
The FDA has also announced that it would authorize four new “natural colors” additives in the coming weeks and would associate with the National Institutes of Health on new research on the impact of food additives on children’s health.
The industry group, the international association of color manufacturers, has rejected the characterization that the colors currently used are dangerous.
“Color additives have been rigorously examined by the World Health Authorities, such as the US Food and Drug Administration, the European Food Safety Authority and the joint committee of the FAO / WHO expert on food additives, without any security problems,” the group said in a statement.
The push to eliminate synthetic dyes is one of the first health policy movements of the Trump administration, since it launched several cycles of deep cuts both in allocation and financing of contracts in all federal health agencies.
Kennedy has cited the increase in the rates of various infantile diseases and chronic diseases that can be linked to the way we eat: “This is existential for our country and we have to remedy it,” he said, adding: “The industry earns money to keep us sick.”
Many of his remarks were brought together by applause of an audience during the press event which included Maha supporters. Some participants wore panels by reading “to make America healthy” and “Maha Moms”.
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