Secretary of Health and Humanitarian Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Will move to remove eight artificial food coloring left from the supply of American food in two years, his department announced on Monday, a significant escalation in his struggle to get rid of the country’s additives suggested by research in the country.
Kennedy and Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration Marty Makary will offer details on Tuesday afternoon in Washington, DC
Secretary of Health and Humanitarian Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Seeing during a press conference on April 7, 2025, at Salt Lake City.
Melissa Majchrzak/AP
Tuesday’s announcement will target artificial dyes used in cereals, ice cream, snacks, yogurt, and more.
The government of former President Joe Biden in January began the process to ban one artificial dyes, Red No. 3, which needs to be removed from food in January 2027 and from drugs in 2028 because it is proven to cause cancer in mice.
Kennedy will now try to remove eight other petroleum -based dyes approved by the FDA.
The Secretary is expected on Tuesday to announce the approval of additional natural dyes, someone who is familiar with the plan told ABC News.
It is not yet clear what enforcement mechanisms will be sought by Kennedy to apply new changes.
Kennedy’s two -year line of time is expected to be announced after he told the food industry leaders at last month’s meeting that he wanted their company to remove artificial dyes from their products at the end of his four -year -old term, according to a memo that described the meeting, obtained by ABC News.
Tuesday’s Kennedy announcement will speed up the process – and remind the company that Kennedy intends to make warnings quickly.
From candy to breakfast cereal to medicines, synthetic food coloring is in various products consumed by Americans. Studies show their bright colors make food more attractive and can even increase appetite.
The health effects of dyes are not fully understood, but many other countries have prohibited additional or need a food packaging warning label about health risks.
All dyes have the potential to trigger allergic reactions to small minorities. Some dyes have been associated with hyperactive problems and behavior in children or have been proven to cause cancer in mice or mice – but nothing has been proven to cause cancer in humans.
Already, red and blue countries are the same -the same as taking problems in their own hands in removing artificial food coloring from certain foods. Both West Virginia and California have passed the law to ban some food coloring from lunch, with plans to extend the ban to a broader level and in all states as well.
In West Virginia, the prohibition of artificial dyes in school lunch will come into force in August, making it the first state in this country that implements the restraint. In California, it will take effect in 2028.
Twenty-six other states, from Iowa to Washington and from Texas to Vermont, are considering similar laws around the prohibition of food coloring or other chemical additives in food, according to a list compiled by the environmental working group, an advocacy organization that focuses on chemicals and poisons.
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment at the California Environmental Protection Agency in 2021 ended a two -year study to seven synthetic food coloring that discovered a relationship with certain neurobehavioral results in some children.
The researchers also found that the current level of “daily intake” for coloring may be too high to protect children from the impact of potential behavior, the report said.