The Trump administration said on Monday that it would announce a plan to eliminate synthetic oil -based dye from the country’s food supply.
The Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary, should discuss the plan at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health and Social Services.
Kennedy promised to eliminate artificial dyes from the country’s food supply, saying that coloring is responsible for behavioral problems in children, including hyperactivity – a link that the FDA says that it was monitoring but which was not established.
The FDA approved 36 food colors, including nine artificial and made from oil. The others are derived from natural sources, such as vegetables.
Among them is red n ° 3, which is made from oil and gives food and drinks a cherry color and was prohibited in January for concerns about the risk of possible cancer. It was approved for use in food in 1907. Food companies will have until 2027 to eliminate the dye; Pharmaceutical companies get an additional year.
The dyes are commonly used in thousands of products sold for children, including candy, breakfast cereals and soda, giving products brilliant and vibrant shades.
Marion Nestlé, professor emeritus of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, called the question “easy to resolve for Kennedy.”
Although the FDA has not established a link, Nestlé said that there were research according to which dyes could contribute to behavioral problems in children.
A 2021 report by California Office of Environmental Health Raced Assessment, for example, examined 27 trials in children and food colors concluded can interfere with normal behavior in at least certain children.
Nestlé – which added that colors are useless for food beyond cosmetics – noted that other countries have moved to restrict or prohibit dyes. In these countries, she said, companies have introduced natural alternatives.
“It should have been done a long time ago,” said Nestlé. “They have promised to get rid of these things for years and reluctant. They got rid of it in Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. There is no reason why we cannot use something else. ”
Jerold MANDE, a deuxiliary professor of nutrition at the Harvard Th Chan School of Public Health, who is also a former main advisor to the FDA and former deputy under-security for food security in the department of agriculture, said that food dyes make food ultra-transformed, which leads to too much consumption and obesity.
“Overweight is the main food cause of cancer,” he said in an email. “Thus, we must regulate the use of synthetic and natural colors as well as flavors that allow food companies to transform powders and boys in” ultra -processed and hyperpalarable food that makes us and our sick children. “
The FDA began to study a possible link between dyes and behavioral problems in children in the 1970s, when a Californian allerchist and pediatrician offered a possible connection. In 2011 and 2019, however, the FDA determined that no causal relationship could be established.
However, there is also a growing movement among several states to eliminate dyes.
In March, Kennedy praised the governor of Virginia-Western Patrick Morrisey after having signed a law prohibiting seven artificial colors approved by the FDA. The law comes into force in 2028. The law follows a similar decision by California last year which prohibited six food colors served in public schools.
In the same month, Kennedy also told leaders of major food companies at a closed -door meeting that he wanted everyone to be at the end of his mandate.
The Consumer Brands Association, a commercial group of the industry, did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
In a statement in March, Sarah Gallo, the main vice-president of the group’s product policy, said that food and drinking manufacturers are committed to food security.
