Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has ordered all major food companies to get rid of artificial dye by the end of his term.
The Health and Human Services secretary, who recently linked the measles outbreak to poor diet and health, made the demand in a closed-door meeting with the CEOs of Kellogg’s, Smucker’s and General Mills, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg News.
“The Secretary made clear his intention to take action unless the industry is willing to be proactive with solutions,” Melissa Hockstad, president and CEO of the Consumer Brands Association, wrote in the memo.
Kennedy, who campaigned for Trump on the platform “Make America Healthy Again,” has repeatedly called for food color additives to be removed from products.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned all Red No. 3 from shelves in January, noting that it may cause cancer. But Red No. 40 is still commonly used in a number of products like breakfast cereals, sodas, condiments, puddings, and yogurt.
The FDA hasn’t studied Red No. 40 in over two decades but claims there is no evidence that it’s harmful. Food industry leaders say that they need to rely on these ingredients to make their products. And health advocates say that the dyes are great at making unhealthy foods look appealing to kids.
Hockstad said that her association and Kennedy’s team will remove “roadblocks” so that companies can more easily comply with Kennedy’s demands.
“We will be working with your teams to gain as much alignment as possible about how we move forward and ensure the industry is positioned in the best possible way as we navigate next steps forward,” she said. But to underscore, decision time is imminent.“
She added in her email that Kennedy wants to “get the worst ingredients out of food” and create “real and transformative” change. U.S. food stocks fell on Tuesday, with General Mills declining 3.9% and Hershey Co. slipping 3.3%.
Kennedy’s order followed President Donald Trump’s tense March 4 address to Congress, during which he insisted that the administration’s goal “is to get toxins out of our environment, poisons out of our food supply, and keep our children healthy and strong,” before mistakenly noting that “not long ago” one in 10,000 children had autism. Although the rate has risen to 1 in 36 in the last few years, largely due to an increase in diagnosis criteria, it has not skyrocketed nearly as drastically as Trump claims.
