Kraft Heinz to remove synthetic dyes from US products amid ‘Make America Healthy Again' pressure
The ketchup king was the first major company to publicly tout a rollback of food dyes amid pressure from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as part of a broader move to address chronic diseases and conditions such as obesity among Americans.
About 10% of Kraft Heinz products — which include brands Crystal Light, Kool-Aid, MiO, Jell-O and Jet-Puffed — contain synthetic dyes.
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4 Kool-Aid owner Kraft Heinz announced plans to remove synthetic food dyes from its US products.
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The dyes will be removed from products altogether or replaced with natural alternatives, the company said in a press release.
'The vast majority of our products use natural or no colors, and we've been on a journey to reduce our use of FD&C colors across the remainder of our portfolio,' said Pedro Navio, Kraft Heinz's North America president.
In 2016, the company removed artificial colors, preservatives and flavors from its Kraft Mac & Cheese, Navio said.
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Its trademark bright-red Heinz Tomato Ketchup has never used artificial dyes, he added.
Kraft Heinz said it is also working with licensees of its brands to roll back the use of the artificial colors.
Kennedy's 'Make America Healthy Again' campaign led the Food and Drug Administration in April to announce a plan to phase out the use of artificial dyes — including red dye 40, yellow dye 5, yellow dye 6, blue dye 1, blue dye 2 and green dye 2.
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In January, under the Biden administration, the FDA had slapped a ban on the use of Red No. 3 dye in food and drugs after studies found the synthetic dye caused cancer in lab rats.
4 Crystal Light owner Kraft Heinz said it will not make any new products in the US with FD&C colors.
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4 RFK Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' campaign led the Food and Drug Administration in April to announce a plan to phase out the use of artificial dyes.
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Several studies have found ties between certain food dyes and behavioral issues in children. The FDA's advisory committee, however, has not established a causal link between the two.
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'These poisonous compounds offer no nutritional benefit and pose real, measurable dangers to our children's health and development,' Kennedy said in April.
The FDA did not reveal any mandates or formal agreements with the food industry in April. Rather, Kennedy claimed 'the industry has voluntarily agreed' to the restrictions.
4 The dyes will be removed from Kraft Heinz products altogether or replaced with natural alternatives.
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Kennedy had met with executives at top food companies including Kraft Heinz, PepsiCo North America, General Mills, WK Kellogg, Tyson Foods and JM Smucker, as well as the industry trade group Consumer Brands Association.
Public opinion has largely turned against the dyes over growing concerns about health risks.
Hundreds gathered outside WK Kellogg headquarters last year to protest the company's continued use of artificial dyes in its breakfast cereals, like Froot Loops and Apple Jacks.
About 15% of WK Kellogg's cereal sales come from products containing artificial colors, a spokesperson told The Post.
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None of its products have contained Red No. 3 dye for years, though, and it is currently reformulating cereals sold in schools so they will not include synthetic dyes by the 2026-27 school year, the spokesperson added.
'We look forward to working with Health and Human Services and the FDA to identify ways to effectively remove FD&C colors from the small percentage of our food that contains them today,' WK Kellogg said in a statement.
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The lead asset, olverembatinib, is the first novel third-generation BCR-ABL1 inhibitor approved in China for the treatment of patients with CML in chronic phase (CML-CP) with T315I mutations, CML in accelerated phase (CML-AP) with T315I mutations, and CML-CP that is resistant or intolerant to first and second-generation TKIs. It is covered by the China National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL). The Company is currently conducting an FDA-cleared, global registrational Phase III trial, or POLARIS-2, of olverembatinib for CML, as well as global registrational Phase III trials for patients with newly diagnosed Ph+ ALL and SDH-deficient GIST. The second lead asset, lisaftoclax, is the first China-approved third-generation Bcl-2 inhibitor indicated for the treatment of adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) who have previously received at least one systemic therapy, including Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors. 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For more information, visit Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, contained in this press release may be forward-looking statements, including statements that express Ascentage Pharma's opinions, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or projections regarding future events or future results of operations or financial condition. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties as discussed in Ascentage Pharma's filings with the SEC, including those set forth in the sections titled 'Risk factors' and 'Special note regarding forward-looking statements and industry data' in its Registration Statement on Form F-1, as amended, filed with the SEC on January 21, 2025, and the Form 20-F filed with the SEC on April 16, 2025, the sections headed 'Forward-looking Statements' and 'Risk Factors' in the prospectus of the Company for its Hong Kong initial public offering dated October 16, 2019, and other filings with the SEC and/or The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited we made or make from time to time that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this presentation do not constitute profit forecast by the Company's management. As a result of these factors, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on Ascentage Pharma's current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects and speak only as of the date of such statements. Ascentage Pharma does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Contact Information Investor Relations: Hogan Wan, Head of IR and Strategy Ascentage Pharma [email protected] +86 512 85557777 Stephanie Carrington ICR Healthcare [email protected] +1 (646) 277-1282 Media Relations: Jon Yu ICR Healthcare [email protected] +1 (646) 677-1855
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A new Vanguard research note focuses on another problem: Workers cashing out retirement accounts when they leave jobs. Cashing out a 401(k) is often the worst option When you depart a job, you have several options with a 401(k). You can do nothing, keeping the money in the account. You can execute a 'rollover,' transferring the funds to another 401(k) or Individual Retirement Account. Or, you can cash out. And if you're exiting a job, a cashout might sound alluring. You may not have another job lined up. Perhaps you're planning a move. Maybe a new child has arrived. 'It can be very tempting. You're having this big decision in your life,' said Rob Williams, managing director of financial planning at Charles Schwab. 'Especially if it's not a large amount, your first instinct is to take the money.' But cashing out a 401(k) is generally the worst option, at least in financial terms. If you liquidate a 401(k) before age 59 ½, you generally pay income taxes on the amount, plus a 10% penalty for early withdrawal. Moreover, you miss out on the chance to collect years of compounded returns on your 401(k) investments. If you cash out a $7,000 retirement account at age 40, you may net as little as $4,270 in actual cash to spend, after penalties and taxes, Fidelity estimates. But if you leave the same $7,000 invested for 20 more years, and the investments increase at an annual rate of 8%, the sum will grow to nearly $35,000, according to a NerdWallet calculator. 'You think it's a small amount of money. You take it out. But if it stayed invested, it could have grown to a much larger sum,' said Anqi Chen, associate director of savings and household finance at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Why do departing workers cash out their 401(k)s? Exiting workers cash out 401(k) accounts for several reasons, retirement experts say. Vanguard researchers theorize that financial need, more than anything else, drives workers to liquidate retirement accounts. Hourly workers are more likely than salaried employees to cash out 401(k)s. The reason, Vanguard says, may be that hourly workers have more income fluctuations. Those ups and downs can leave them short of cash. Workers with lower incomes are more likely to cash out than those with higher incomes. That data point, too, suggests financial need. 'It's really short-term cashflow liquidity challenges that are explaining a lot of these early withdrawals,' said Aaron Goodman, an economist at Vanguard. Vanguard found that workers with emergency savings were much less likely to cash out a 401(k) when leaving a job. Thus, Vanguard urges workers to save for emergencies. Even $2,000 in rainy-day funds, researchers found, allowed workers to leave jobs without raiding retirement funds. Employees are also much more likely to cash out a 401(k) account with a small balance. The typical cashout involves 'a few thousand dollars,' Goodman said. Some workers, especially younger workers, cash out retirement accounts because the sum seems too small to bother with. 'It's easy for them to fall into this mindset, 'It's not a lot of money,'' said Mike Shamrell, vice president of thought leadership at Fidelity Investments. 'If you do that every other year in your 20s, that starts to add up.' Rolling over a 401(k) can be 'incredibly hard' Cashing out a 401(k) is relatively easy. Rolling it over into another retirement account, by contrast, can be 'incredibly hard,' said Chen of Boston College. That's another reason why many workers cash out retirement plans. In a rollover, you move your retirement savings to another 401(k) account at your new company, or into an IRA, a personal retirement savings account. Rollovers can get complicated, especially when the funds are going into a new 401(k) account managed by a different firm. Research by Capitalize, a retirement savings platform, found rollovers 'outdated and painful': Only 22% of savers managed to roll over an account without help, and 42% said the process took them at least two months to complete. In many cases, rollovers involve laborious forms and old-fashioned paper checks. Some employers encourage departing workers to cash out low-balance retirement accounts, "just because it's easier for them," said David John, a senior strategic policy advisor at the AARP Public Policy Institute. The ability to move a 401(k) from one employer to the next is called 'portability,' and the lack of it has thwarted workers from preserving retirements savings, according to Chen and others. When exiting employees contemplate rolling over a 401(k) account, 'they're just a little bit overwhelmed by the process,' said Shamrell of Fidelity. 'They feel it's going to be time-consuming and complex.' A recent initiative in the retirement-savings industry aims to solve the portability problem. In 2022, a consortium of private retirement-plan providers announced a collaboration to boost the portability of small retirement accounts. When someone leaves a job, the network of providers will make sure that retirement funds 'move seamlessly from one job to another,' said John of AARP. The auto-portability program applies to accounts valued at $7,000 or less, which are more likely to be cashed out or forgotten. Most big retirement-plan providers participate in the effort. 'I do think there's an evolution, as there should be, in terms of making this more of a point-and-click exercise,' said Williams of Schwab. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Workers cash out 401(k)s at an alarming rate. Why? Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
