Washington (AP) – US health officials said on Tuesday that they would eliminate oil -based artificial colors from the country’s food supply, which could start overhaul of ingredients for dozens of products with lively shades on the American stores of stores.
Look at the Secretary of Health, Robert F Kennedy Jr., speak in the player above.
The Federal Food and Drug Administration will take action to eliminate synthetic dyes by the end of 2026, said FDA commissioner Marty Makary, at a press conference. The agency will establish a standard and a calendar so that the industry goes to natural alternatives, will revoke the authorization of dyes which are not in production in the coming weeks and take measures to eliminate the remaining dyes on the market.
“Today, FDA is asking food companies to replace petrochemical dyes with natural ingredients for American children as they already do in Europe and Canada,” said Makary.
This decision will strengthen the health of children, he added: “For 50 years, we have been heading one of the greatest uncontrolled scientific experiences in the world on the children of our country without their consent.”
Makary was joined by the Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said he had already heard food manufacturers but had no official agreement with them.
“We do not agree, we have an understanding,” said Kennedy.
Health defenders have long called for the elimination of artificial food colors, citing mixed studies indicating that they can cause neurobehavioral problems, including problems of hyperactivity and attention, in some children. The FDA argued that approved dyes are safe and that “all scientific evidence shows that most children have no side effects when consuming foods containing colored additives”.
The FDA currently authorizes 36 food additives, including eight synthetic dyes. In January, the agency announced that the coloring known as Red 3 – used in candies, cakes and certain drugs – would be prohibited in food by 2027 because it caused cancer of laboratory rats.
Artificial dyes are widely used in American foods. In Canada and Europe – where synthetic colors are necessary to transport warning labels – manufacturers mainly use natural substitutes. Several states, including California and Virginia-Western, have adopted laws restricting the use of artificial colors in food.
The announcement has praised defenders who say that dyes include health risks and are useless beyond the cosmetics.
“Their only objective is to make food for food companies,” said Dr. Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and former FDA official. “Food dyes help make ultra -approval foods more attractive, especially for children, often masking the absence of a colorful ingredient, like fruits.”
The elimination of artificial foods of food has long been a goal of so-called mothers Maha, the main supporters of Kennedy and his initiatives “Make America Healthy Again”. They were one of the demonstrators who signed petitions and gathered outside the siege of Michigan of WK Kellogg Co.
Health officials insisted that the food industry wanted more clarity on the issue and was receptive to changes.
Consumer Brands Association, a commercial group for food manufacturers, said that it had long asked the FDA to assert its power to regulate food at the national level, rather than leaving it to a patchwork of states laws. But, in a press release, the group also urged FDA officials to “prioritize research that is objective, evaluated by peers and relevant human health and security”.
He added that the ingredients in question have been rigorously studied and demonstrated as safe.
A few hours before the announcement, the international Dairy Foods Association said that its members would voluntarily eliminate the artificial colors of milk, cheese and yogurt products sold to American school meal programs by July 2026.
But other industry groups have pledged rapid changes.
“The FDA and the regulatory organizations around the world have judged that our products and ingredients were safe, and we are impatient to work with the Trump administration and the congress on this issue,” said Christopher Gindlesperger, spokesperson for the National Confectioners Association. “We are in firm agreement according to which the scientific assessment of food additives will help to eliminate the confusion of consumers and to reconstruct confidence in our national food security system.”
The international association of color manufacturers said that requiring reformulation in less than two years, “ignores scientific evidence and underestimates the complexity of food production. This process is neither simple nor immediate, and the disturbances of the resulting offer will limit access to familiar and affordable grocery articles. ”
The elimination of food supply dyes will not solve the main health problems that afflict Americans, said Susan Mayne, an expert in chronic diseases at Yale University and former director of the FDA food center.
“With each of their ads, they focus on something that will not accomplish what they say,” said Mayne about Kennedy’s initiatives. “Most of these food dyes have been in our food supply for 100 years. … So why do they not lead to reductions of things that lead the rates of chronic diseases?”
In the past, FDA officials have said that the threat of justice action for the food industry forced the government to have significant scientific evidence before prohibiting additives. RED 3 was prohibited from cosmetics for more than three decades before it was eliminated from food and drugs. It took five decades to the FDA to ban brimmed vegetable oil due to health problems.
Some of the laws of the state prohibiting synthetic dyes in school meals have aggressive deadlines. The prohibition of Western Virginia, for example, prohibits red, yellow, blue and green artificial dyes in school meals from August 1. A wider ban will extend restrictions to all foods sold in the state on January 1, 2028.
Many American food companies already reformulate their food, according to Sensient Colors, one of the world’s largest producers of dietary colors and aromas. Instead of synthetic dyes, food manufacturers can use natural shades made from beets, seaweed and insects and crigments crushed from purple sweet potatoes, radishes and red cabbage.
Aleccia reported in California.
The Department of Health and Sciences of the Associated Press receives the support of the scientific and educational group of the media from the medical institute Howard Hughes and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.