(NewsNation) — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will announce further details Tuesday on his plan to rid the American food supply of food dyes.
In a now-removed media release from the Health and Human Services website, Kennedy is expected to speak with Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary in Washington, D.C.
Before January’s change in administration, Red dye No. 3 was ordered to be removed from products by 2027 and medications by the following year after medical research found it caused cancer in rats.
The officials are expected to spell out a regulatory path for removing the color additives, a process that typically requires public notice and agency review. It would be a sweeping change for U.S. food producers, who would likely replace the dyes with natural substitutes.
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Health advocates have long called for the removal of artificial dyes from foods, citing mixed studies that indicate they may cause neurobehavioral problems, including hyperactivity and attention issues, in some children. The FDA has maintained that the approved dyes are safe and that “the totality of scientific evidence shows that most children have no adverse effects when consuming foods containing color additives.”
The FDA currently allows 36 food color additives, including eight synthetic dyes. Some U.S. states, such as California and West Virginia, recently enacted laws that ban artificial colors and other additives from school meals and in some cases the broader food supply.
