Kennedy rattles food companies with vow to rid food of artificial dyes

Boston Globe

11-03-2025

And while Kennedy said in the meeting that he wanted to work with the industry, he also 'made clear his intention to take action unless the industry is willing to be proactive with solutions,' the association wrote.
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'But to underscore, decision time is imminent,' Melissa Hockstad, who attended the meeting and is the group's president, wrote in the letter.
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Later on Monday, Kennedy issued a directive that would also affect food companies nationwide. He ordered the Food and Drug Administration to revise a long-standing policy that allowed companies — independent of any regulatory review — to decide that a new ingredient in the food supply was safe. Put in place decades ago, the policy was aimed at ingredients like vinegar or salt that are widely considered to be well-understood and benign. But the designation, known as GRAS, or 'generally recognized as safe,' has since grown to include a far broader array of natural and synthetic additives.
Kennedy had vowed to upend the food system as a way to address growing rates of chronic disease and other health concerns even before his appointment as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services. He now oversees the FDA, the federal regulator for about 80 percent of the nation's food supply.
Many food companies rely on artificial dyes to make breakfast cereals and candies dazzling shades of pink and blue, for instance, or beverages neon orange. Some have tried to adapt natural ingredients, like carrot or blueberry juice, for coloring, particularly for products sold in international markets. But the companies have said that consumer demand had weakened in the United States because of dissatisfaction with less appealing or vivid colors in snacks and drinks.
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Steven Williams, chief executive of PepsiCo's North America division, attended the meeting with Kennedy, but the company said he would not comment. In an email, a PepsiCo spokesperson said that the company viewed the meeting as a 'productive first step' and added it was focused on providing consumers 'more options with natural ingredients, no synthetic colors and reductions in sugar, fat and sodium.'
Stacy Flathau, the chief corporate affairs officer for WK Kellogg, said in an emailed statement that the company looked forward to working with the new administration.
While the industry memo expressed alarm about the plan to remove synthetic colors, it did not address Kennedy's additional proposal targeting some food ingredients deemed safe.
Advocates for food safety have criticized the existing GRAS policy as a loophole enabling food companies to introduce untested ingredients that in some cases have proved hazardous. About 1,000 ingredients deemed safe have been reviewed by the FDA, but Kennedy targeted the ones that companies deem acceptable with no government oversight.
'Eliminating this loophole will provide transparency to consumers, help get our nation's food supply back on track by ensuring that ingredients being introduced into foods are safe, and ultimately Make America Healthy Again,' Kennedy said in a statement.
Bills to remove synthetic colors from the food supply have taken off since California banned Red Dye No. 3, a move that the FDA followed. Other state proposals have targeted titanium dioxide, a compound used to make food appear shiny. Texas and West Virginia have moved to strip colorants from some school lunches.
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In Hockstad's letter to food company executives, she said Kennedy wanted synthetic color additives known as FD&C colors, or Food, Drug & Cosmetic dyes, removed during his administration.
Vani Hari, an activist known online as the Food Babe who did not attend the meeting, applauded Kennedy's willingness to take on the food industry. 'Bobby gave the food industry an ultimatum,' she said. 'Either work with us to make these changes happen, or we'll do it ourselves.'
Stuart Pape, a lawyer who represents food companies, said Kennedy's plan was 'ambitious.' He said the FDA traditionally had proposed removal of one coloring at a time, presenting research on why the ingredient was unsafe. Whether there is an adequate supply of alternative colorings would be a concern of a broader plan.
'I think Kennedy has made no secret that he intends to go after the food ingredients,' Pape said. 'And I think this is the opening of that war.'
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