In his first meeting with top executives from Pepsico, WK Kellogg, General Mills and other big companies, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health Secretary, told them that a top priority would eliminate artificial dyes from the Nation’s food supply.
At Monday’s meeting, Mr Kennedy stressed that it was a “intense desire and urgent priority” of the new Trump administration to get rid of the artificial pigment food system.
In addition, he warned companies that they should predict significant changes as a result of his search for “getting the worst ingredients out” of food, according to a letter from the Consumer Marque Union of a commercial group. The Times examined a copy sent to the team members after the meeting.
And while Mr Kennedy told the meeting that he wanted to work with the industry, “he made clear his intention to take action unless the industry is willing to be active with solutions,” the link wrote.
“But to emphasize, the decision time is imminent,” wrote Melissa Hockstad, who attended the meeting and is the team’s president, wrote in the letter.
Later on Monday, Mr Kennedy issued a directive that would also affect food companies at national level. He ordered the Food and Drug Administration to review a long -term policy that allowed companies – regardless of any regulatory review – to decide that a new ingredient in food supply was safe. Create their place decades ago, politics is aimed at ingredients such as vinegar or salt that are widely considered to be well understood and benign. But the name, known as Gras, or “generally recognized as safe”, has since been developed to include a much wider range of natural and synthetic additives.
Mr Kennedy had promised to upgrade the food system as a way of dealing with increasing rates of chronic diseases and other health concerns even before his appointment as head of the Ministry of Health and Human Services. It now oversees the FDA, the federal regulatory authority for about 80 % of the Nation’s food supply.
Many food companies are based on artificial dyes to make breakfast cereals and candies dazzling pink and blue, for example, or Neon Orange drinks. Some have already tried to adapt natural ingredients, such as carrot or raspberry juice, for coloring, especially for products sold in international markets, such as Canada. However, companies said that consumer demand had been weakened in the United States due to dissatisfaction with less attractive or vibrant colors in snacks and drinks.
Steven Williams, chief executive of the PepsiCo North America, attended the meeting with Mr. Kennedy, but the company said it would not comment. In an email, a Pepsico spokesman said the company regarded the meeting as a “productive first step” and added that it focused on providing consumers “more options with natural ingredients, without synthetic colors and reductions in sugar, fat and sodium”.
Stacy Flathau, the head of corporate affairs for WK Kellogg, said in an online statement that the company is looking forward to working with the new administration.
While the industry’s note expressed alert for the plan to abolish synthetic colors, it did not address the additional proposal of Mr Kennedy aimed at certain food ingredients that were considered safe.
Supporters for food safety have criticized existing Gras policy as a gap that allows food companies to introduce unsecured ingredients that have in some cases proven dangerous. About 1,000 ingredients considered safe have been revised by the FDA, but Mr Kennedy aims at those that companies consider acceptable without government supervision.
“Eliminating this vacuum will provide transparency to consumers. It will help to refund our nation’s food supply, ensuring that the ingredients imported into foods are safe and eventually make America again healthy,” Mr Kennedy said in a statement.
The accounts to remove synthetic colors from food supply have taken off since California banned red No. 3, a move followed by the FDA. Other state proposals have targeted titanium dioxide, a compound used to make food look shiny. Texas and West Virginia have moved to strip dyes from some school meals.
In Ms Hockstad’s letter to Food Company executives, he said that Mr Kennedy wanted synthetic color additives known as FD & C colors or food, drugs and cosmetics, which were removed during his administration.
Vani Hari, an activist who is known on the Internet as The Food Babe who did not attend the meeting, applauded Mr Kennedy’s willingness to take over the food industry. “Bobby gave the food industry an ultimatum,” he said. “Whether you work with us to make these changes happen or we will do it ourselves.”
Mr Kennedy was expected to meet with members of America Healthy again on Tuesday.
Stuart Pape, a lawyer representing food companies, said Mr Kennedy’s plan was “ambitious”. He said that the FDA has traditionally suggested removing a coloring each time, showing research on why the ingredient was not safe. Whether there is sufficient providing alternative colors would be concern for a broader design.
“I think Kennedy did not have any secrets that he intends to go after food ingredients,” Mr Pape said. “And I think this is the opening of this war.”
Dr. Peter Lurie, a former FDA employee and director of the Public Interest Science Center, a defense team, said that the effort may not have a significant impact on long chronic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease.
Food -related cancer data focused mainly on red No. 3, he said. On the daily days of Biden’s administration, the FDA issued a ban on Red No. 3 that will come into force in the coming years. Red paint No. 3 has been linked to some cancers in animals, but not in humans.
He also said that Mr Kennedy’s move can be effective because dyes do nothing but make unhealthy foods look more attractive. Although efforts to limit food dyes, he said, food executives can participate in other business leaders who were willing to kowtow in the current administration.
“Since their fear of the anger of administration,” Dr. Lurie said, “they may see it in their interest to follow it.”
