CBS News – The Food and Drug Administration is asking the food industry to stop using synthetic food dyes, in a bid to fulfill one of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goals to swap them out with natural alternatives in the U.S. food supply.
The FDA’s move stops short of the outright ban that had been floated for in Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” platform from the campaign trail. Instead, it relies on what the Department of Health and Human Services said was a “national standard and timeline for the industry” to voluntarily make the switch.
“Let’s start in a friendly way and see if we can do this without any statutory or regulatory changes. But we are exploring every tool in the toolbox to make sure this gets done very quickly,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary told reporters at an event to announce the plan.
Makary said he had had “wonderful meetings with the food industry” and claimed that they are eager to remove artificial dyes from the food supply.
“They want to do it. So why go down a complicated road with Congress when they want to do this,” Makary said.
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HHS says the FDA will be “working with industry to eliminate six remaining synthetic food dyes” and will also be accelerating the review and approval of some new natural color additives.
Response from the food industry
The food dye industry denied that there was a safety concern with artificial dyes, citing past reviews by the FDA and other international authorities, and said that their use is “essential for consistency, visual appeal, and consumer trust in food products.”
“Requiring reformulation by the end of 2026 ignores scientific evidence and underestimates the complexity of food production. The process is neither simple nor immediate” …