Latest news with #RFKJr.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
PepsiCo Seemingly Responds to Trump's Remarks on Coca-Cola with This Big Change
PepsiCo Seemingly Responds to Trump's Remarks on Coca-Cola with This Big Change originally appeared on Parade. Let's be honest, friends. The world feels a little bit more than wackadoodle lately, and it's getting hard to keep up with everything that's going on. Floods are raging across the country, there's salmonella in the eggs, plastic is in almost everything, and we still can't agree that everyone deserves the same basic human rights. It's truly pandemonium, and for some reason, the past few years have felt like a decades-long saga without an ending. With all the real-world problems going on, you'd think we'd find something more pressing to focus on instead of seed oils and food dyes, but alas, here we are. Sure, we can all agree that synthetic colorings and extra ingredients that aren't immediately beneficial for food safety and preservation aren't exactly great, but what about combating climate change or ending world hunger? 😋😋🍳🍔 It would seem those problems are a bit too big to tackle, so instead, we'll start by eliminating high fructose corn syrup from soda. With the help of the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, RFK Jr., the Trump administration has been pressuring companies and brands that do business in the United States to reformulate their products to remove dyes and ingredients that could contribute to chronic illnesses and from Heinz to General Mills have all announced their intent to follow suit, and now, thanks to Donald Trump, the soda industry might be next. Just this past Wednesday, the President claimed that Coca-Cola would be switching to real cane sugar in its sodas, prompting the makers of Pepsi to seemingly respond with a major update of their own. The brand announced on Thursday that it would remove artificial colors and flavors from Lay's and Tostitos when they relaunch later this year. It also signaled that it would switch to cane sugar in its products if consumer demand supports it. Additionally, it said that it plans to switch to avocado and olive oils across its brands in an effort to appease shifting consumer sentiment regarding certain oils. While Coca-Cola has neither confirmed nor denied President Trump's claims, the company has made sugar reduction a primary focus across its products—and it looks like Pepsi is gearing up to do the same. Only time will tell if this becomes an industry wide trend. One thing we're sure of, though, is that it won't be a slow news weekPepsiCo Seemingly Responds to Trump's Remarks on Coca-Cola with This Big Change first appeared on Parade on Jul 18, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 18, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
People Are Absolutely Dragging RFK Jr. For His Wild Hiking Outfit
Let's talk Phoenix, Arizona. Related: Currently, the temps are a *sensible* 100-something degrees. RFK Jr. decided it was a good time to do a little hiking. He hiked this one, Camelback Mountain: Related: According to All Trails, it's a 2.6-mile hike with a pretty big 1,312 elevation gain. This is the pic he posted from the top: Related: Everyone is pointing out one thing... The jeans. Some people found it funny: "wearing jeans to hike camelback when it's 105° is hilarious." Related: Other people took joy in his (probable) misery: "Enjoying the fact that you must be chaffed and miserable af wearing jeans on a Camelback hike in July." We have this person calling it ghoulish behavior: "Hiking Camelback in jeans in the middle of July is such freak behavior I'm sorry. Get the fuck out of my city you ghoul." And this person wanted to call the FBI: "I want him arrested @FBI." I just truly cannot imagine! Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds:
Buzz Feed
3 days ago
- Climate
- Buzz Feed
The Internet Is Roasting RFK Jr.'s Ridiculous Hiking Outfit
Let's talk Phoenix, Arizona. Currently, the temps are a *sensible* 100-something degrees. RFK Jr. decided it was good time to do a little hiking. He hiked this one, Camelback Mountain: According to All Trails, it's a 2.6 mile hike with a pretty big 1,312 elevation gain. This is the pic he posted from the top: Everyone is pointing out one thing... The jeans. Some people found it funny: "wearing jeans to hike camelback when it's 105° is hilarious." Other people took joy in his (probable) misery: "Enjoying the fact that you must be chaffed and miserable af wearing jeans on a Camelback hike in July." We have this person calling it ghoulish behavior: "Hiking Camelback in jeans in the middle of July is such freak behavior I'm sorry. Get the fuck out of my city you ghoul." And this person wanted to call the FBI: "I want him arrested @FBI." I just truly cannot imagine!
Atlantic
16-07-2025
- Health
- Atlantic
The United States of MAHA
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent a lot of his time as health secretary on the road. Late last month, he spoke at an event in Baton Rouge and lamented how Americans have gotten sicker and sicker over the years. 'When my uncle was president, I was a 10-year-old boy—we had the healthiest children in the world,' he said, flanked by supporters in green MAHA Louisiana hats. The day before, Kennedy gave a near-identical speech in Oklahoma City, this time surrounded by people holding signs that read OK ❤️ RFK Jr. and Make Oklahoma Healthy Again. Kennedy traveled to both states to celebrate their efforts to take up his MAHA agenda. In Oklahoma, RFK Jr. joined the signing of a pair of orders that will begin the process of pulling fluoride from the state's water supply and blocking the purchase of soda using food stamps. In Louisiana, the health secretary was there when the state enacted a bill that forces food companies to put warnings on their products if they contain certain artificial food dyes, preservatives, or dozens of other additives. These were just two stops on a nationwide tour that has also taken RFK Jr. to several other states—including Arizona, Utah, and West Virginia—that are pushing forward with his ideas, especially on food. In some cases, Kennedy has cheered from afar: 'Texas is leading the way,' he posted on X last month, after the Lone Star State passed its own MAHA-style bill similar to Louisiana's. Though RFK Jr. has the power to enact monumental change, much of MAHA's actual successes at reforming the American diet haven't come from Washington. While states pass law after law cracking down on food, Kennedy's own biggest action to date has been relatively modest: a campaign pressuring food companies to voluntarily remove synthetic food dyes from their products. The states are out-MAHAing the MAHA king, much to his pleasure. To some degree, RFK Jr. was always going to need help from the states. Though he has repeatedly called for a ban on purchasing soda using food stamps, the health secretary can't make it happen without action from states such as Oklahoma. State legislators started introducing various MAHA bills right as Kennedy was being confirmed to his position. In March, Kennedy visited West Virginia when it became one of the first states to pass such a bill into law, banning seven artificial dyes from being served in schools. The laws in Louisiana and Texas are far more sweeping, among the most stringent food policies that have been passed by states in recent memory. In Texas, a range of products that include common food additives will have to specify on the package that they are 'not recommended for human consumption by the appropriate authority in Australia, Canada, the European Union, or the United Kingdom.' Louisiana has a similar warning-label rule, and mandates that any restaurant serving food cooked in seed oils has to display a disclaimer in the store. Kennedy could enact similar changes nationwide, and could even outright ban certain ingredients, but so far he hasn't. Such actions typically require bureaucrats to first collect evidence that a certain food is causing actual harm, and outside groups have already gathered dossiers of scientific studies. 'All he had to do was swing and hit it out of the ballpark,' Jensen Jose, the regulatory counsel at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group that pushes for more stringent regulation of food additives, told me. By Jose's telling, Kennedy 'didn't even step up to bat.' Kennedy's strategy appears to be by design. Banning ingredients requires new regulations, something that the Trump administration disdains. In January, Trump signed an executive order requiring that for every new rule enacted, the government would have to shed 10. By regulating food through handshake agreements and relying on states to enact their own policies, Kennedy is getting his way without having to deal with all of the red tape. . There are other practical considerations: Although Kennedy talks about waging war with food companies, he is running low on infantry. Food regulations involve legal paperwork, and the FDA has been without its chief counsel since March. The FDA branch tasked with reviewing the safety of additives was thrown into chaos back in February, when a number of employees were fired—prompting the agency's top food regulator to resign in protest. In an email, a Health and Human Services spokesperson told me, 'Secretary Kennedy has led the national charge in demanding greater transparency and accountability from the food industry, and it is precisely because of his leadership that many states have felt empowered to act.' The challenge for Kennedy in realizing his vision on a national scale, of course, is that he also has to contend with states that are less enthused about the MAHA agenda. But it's possible that the state laws in Texas and Louisiana will have consequences for the rest of the country. (It's also true that some of what he has proposed—particularly around food dyes—has at least some bipartisan appeal.) Instead of dealing with the hassle of creating special packaging with warning labels to sell in Texas and Louisiana, food companies might just add those labels to the products they sell nationwide. Something along those lines has happened before. Across the country, foods occasionally come with warnings that they contain certain carcinogens after California enacted a rule requiring such labels. Or perhaps food companies will take out the ingredients targeted by Louisiana and Texas to avoid the warning-label requirement altogether. Kennedy seems to be banking on such sweeping change. During his appearance in Louisiana, he noted that the state's MAHA law helps his campaign of pressuring food companies to phase out artificial food dyes. 'The food companies are coming in every day and saying, Stop the states from doing this; we don't want to have a national product that has a patchwork of different states with different rules,' Kennedy claimed. The quickness by which states picked up this MAHA charge undoubtedly projects strength onto Kennedy during his negotiations with food makers. Some of the world's largest food companies, including Nestlé USA, Tyson Foods, and Kraft Heinz, have already pledged to remove certain dyes from their products in the coming years. But outsourcing MAHA to the states is hardly a surefire strategy for Kennedy. Some companies promising change may actually be waiting him out—banking on the idea that once Trump leaves office, Kennedy will, too. In the meantime, should the laws be challenged in court, they risk at least being partially struck down. In 2013, a Michigan state law requiring unique beverage labels was nullified after a federal appeals court determined that the legislation unfairly interfered with interstate commerce. Even if the laws stand, RFK Jr. might face some challenges. Warning labels on artificial food dyes might lead companies to swap them out for natural alternatives, but it's less likely to be the case for emulsifiers—another category of food additives that is targeted by the Louisiana and Texas bills. Emulsifiers are present in many ultraprocessed foods, and in some cases there is no easy replacement. The clearest way to get rid of emulsifiers would be a national ban. Kennedy can do that, but the states can't. The same is true with many other food additives that he—often incorrectly—says are wreaking havoc to American health. At a certain point, no matter how MAHA-focused some states become, Kennedy may actually need to get to regulating.
Montreal Gazette
03-07-2025
- Business
- Montreal Gazette
Opinion: Artificial food colourings are fading
The recent announcement by American multinational food giant General Mills that it will remove all artificial colours from its U.S. products came just hours after fellow food and beverage giant Kraft Heinz made a similar commitment. Both companies are giving themselves two years to complete the transition — a realistic timeline, given that reformulating food products can be as complex as redesigning a vehicle. It typically takes two to three years to test, approve and scale up new ingredients. What's extraordinary is that these changes are happening voluntarily. There is no government ban. No regulatory mandate. These companies are simply responding to market pressures — pressures rooted in a growing consumer demand for 'clean labels.' Some attribute this momentum to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' initiative. While better known for his controversial stance on vaccines, RFK Jr. has long advocated for the naturalization of food systems. Now, as U.S. health secretary, he's in a position to shape policy — and public sentiment — in ways that may accelerate the move away from artificial ingredients. Some of the movement is evidence-based. While artificial food dyes such as Red 40 and Yellow 5 have been approved by regulators and deemed safe in small doses, concerns remain — particularly among parents and pediatric health professionals. Emerging research suggests a link between certain dyes and behavioural issues, including hyperactivity in children. Europe has already imposed stricter labelling rules and encouraged the use of natural alternatives. North American regulations, by contrast, remain relatively permissive. But make no mistake: This shift is primarily driven by politics and market optics. Consumers have been expressing discomfort with artificial additives for years, and large 'consumer packaged goods' companies like General Mills and Kraft Heinz have seen the writing on the wall. Clean-label expectations are no longer niche — they are mainstream. The implications are significant. With major industry players moving simultaneously, the economics of natural dyes could change rapidly. Today, natural alternatives such as beet juice, turmeric and carrot extract are more expensive and less stable than synthetic counterparts. But as demand increases and supply chains adapt, these costs are likely to fall. Importantly, when all competitors shift at the same time, the playing field is level — there's less fear of losing market share to a more colourful, artificially enhanced rival. Canada will inevitably feel the ripple effects. Many food products on this country's shelves are imported from U.S. facilities. It is unlikely that manufacturers will maintain separate formulations for a relatively small market like Canada. As a result, Canadians can expect to see more artificial dye-free products, regardless of whether Ottawa acts. Health Canada may choose to respond, but it may not matter. Canadian manufacturers that export to the U.S. will face mounting pressure to align with cleaner label expectations, especially if U.S. retailers begin to phase out artificially coloured products. While Canada regulates artificial dyes through dosage limits and labelling requirements, public concern continues to rise. For consumers hoping artificial colours will disappear from their food, change is coming — and soon. And here's the good news: Because the shift is industry-wide, the economics suggest food prices won't rise due to the use of natural dyes. In fact, the transition may lead to better transparency, more innovation and healthier choices — without a hit to the wallet.
