Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary outlined a plan that they said will remove petroleum-based dyes from food, a key objective of the Make America Healthy Again movement.
“Nobody wants to eat petroleum, everybody knows that caused health problems,” Kennedy said at a press event on Tuesday. “And so we can act on that now.”
The plan announced Tuesday is an understanding with the food industry, Kennedy said. It is not a regulation or legal agreement.
“Let’s start in a friendly way and see if we can do this without any changes. We are exploring every tool in the toolbox to make sure this gets done very quickly,” Makary said when asked whether the understanding could be enforced, adding that the food companies “want to do it.”
Synthetic food dyes are used in a wide range of products on the market in America. Studies have suggested that artificially vibrant colors make food more appealing and could even increase appetite. However, an increasing number of studies and grassroots activists have highlighted the correlation between petroleum-based food additives and chronic health conditions, such as obesity and neurological disorders.
Makary announced that food companies would, by the end of 2026, need to eliminate six petroleum-based dyes from the U.S. food supply. Two others, Red No. 2 and Orange B, will need to be eliminated “within the coming weeks,” the commissioner said.
Makary noted that petroleum-based dyes, including Red No. 4 and Yellow 40, used in food, beverages, and pharmaceuticals, have been linked to a variety of chronic conditions in children, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, obesity, diabetes, and genomic disruption.
The 27 other food dyes approved by the FDA are derived from natural colorings, such as beet juice or carrot juice, which Makary held up during the press conference. Makary also announced that the FDA would be fast-tracking the approval of other natural dyes.
“This administration is not interested in continuing down the path of doing the same old things as we watch our nation’s children get sicker,” Makary said. “We need fresh new approaches.”
Long time coming
The FDA forced the removal of Red No. 3 from cosmetic products in the 1990s due to studies showing the chemical causes cancer in rats. It was not also removed from food at the same time, despite multiple citizen petitions.
But just days before President Donald Trump was sworn into his second term in January, the FDA announced that it was beginning the process of requiring companies to remove one petroleum-based dye, Red No. 3, from the consumer market.
Under the Biden-era rules, Red No. 3 was to be removed from foods in January 2027 and medications by 2028.
Makary announced Tuesday afternoon that he would request that food companies remove Red No. 3 “sooner than the 2027-2028 deadline previously announced,” but he did not say when specifically.
Cautious affirmation of the food industry
Kennedy said the food industry came to the negotiating table with the administration to establish regulations by which to standardize marketing nationwide. He added that the industry has “shown a lot of leadership on this right now.”
“They want clear guidelines, and they want to know what they can and can’t do,” Kennedy said. “And we’re going to give them that.”
Although many of the speakers at the event framed the announcement as condemning food dyes as poisoning the population, Makary affirmed that “there are many good people in food manufacturing delivering on the needs of the American public.”
“They want to do it, so why go down a complicated road with Congress?” Makary said. “They don’t want to do a patchwork of 30 different state plans.”
Calley Means, a long-term health activist and special government employee with the White House, said he has “had countless meetings with the food industry” about petroleum-based dyes and other MAHA priorities, adding that the industry has criticized Kennedy’s approach for “not being scientifically rigorous.”
NOVO NORDISK APPLIES FOR FDA APPROVAL IN TIGHTENING RACE FOR WEIGHT LOSS PILL
Means said the industry’s call for placebo-controlled studies on the health and safety of artificial food dyes would require “giving these children shots of crude oil every single day for years, and seeing what happens.”
“When a study itself that the industry is telling us to do is, on its face, unethical,” Means said.
