Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday the government will phase out all artificial dyes from the food supply by the end of next year — a swift timeline that could meet resistance from the powerful food industry.
Under the plan, the Food and Drug Administration will give the food industry roughly two years to transition from petroleum-based synthetic dyes to natural alternatives.
"For companies that are currently using petroleum-based red dye, try watermelon juice or beet juice," FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said at a news briefing. "For companies currently combining petroleum-based yellow chemical and red dyes together, try carrot juice."
Makary said the FDA will authorize four new food dyes it says are derived from natural sources in the coming weeks.
The FDA has approved 36 food dyes, nine of which are artificial and made from petroleum. The others are derived from natural sources, like vegetables.
Among the nine artificial dyes is Red No. 3, which gives food and drinks a cherry color and was banned in January over concerns about possible cancer risks.
The FDA is beginning a process to revoke the approval of two of the artificial dyes — Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B — “within the coming months,” the Department of Health and Human Services said.Citrus Red No. 2 is used to color the skin of oranges.
The FDA will also ask food companies to remove Red No. 3 from the nation’s food supply earlier than 2027 — the Biden administration’s initial deadline. (Drug companies got an additional year.)
It will work with food companies to eliminate the remaining six artificial dyes by the end of next year, it says.
“For too long, some food producers have been feeding Americans petroleum-based chemicals without their knowledge or consent,” Kennedy said in the release.
Kennedy and Makary were joined on a stage filled with women and their young children. Dr. Mark Hyman and Vani Deva Hari, better known as “Food Babe,” who are longtime Kennedy associates, and West Virginia’s Republican governor, Patrick Morrisey, spoke about harms from artificial ingredients.
Kennedy often got applause when he described failures in the U.S. food system, slamming sugar as “poison” and suggesting that if food companies wanted petroleum in their products, they should eat it themselves.
While Makary said removing artificial dyes wouldn’t be a “silver bullet” that “instantly” makes America’s children healthier, the overall impression the other speakers gave was that the United States was entering a new era.
The FDA hasn’t established that artificial dyes cause behavioral problems, although Makary listed studies from other groups that suggested dyes might cause issues in kids.
“For the last 50 years, American children have increasingly been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals,” he said.
Jerold Mande, an adjunct professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said Kennedy’s two-year timeline, while fast for “FDA historical standards,” is doable.
“It will meet some resistance,” said Mande, who is also a former FDA senior adviser and former deputy undersecretary for food safety at the Agriculture Department, “but since companies already eliminate these additives in other countries, I don’t expect a big fight.”
Kennedy has vowed to eliminate artificial dyes from the country’s food supply, claiming they are responsible for behavioral problems in children, including hyperactivity — a link that the FDA says it is monitoring but that hasn’t been established.
The dyes are commonly used in thousands of products marketed to kids, including candy, breakfast cereals and soda, giving the products bright, vibrant hues.On Tuesday, HHS said the FDA would fast-track the review of a number of “natural” dyes, including calcium phosphate, Galdieria extract blue, gardenia blue and FDA-approved butterfly pea flower extract, which can range in shades from deep purple to bright blue.
No representatives from the food companies spoke at the briefing. Asked whether the administration has reached an agreement with food companies to transition to natural dyes by the end of next year, Kennedy responded, “We have an understanding.”
In a previous interview, Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, called the issue “an easy one” for Kennedy to address.
While the FDA hasn’t established a link, Nestle said there is some research that dyes might contribute to behavioral problems in kids.
A 2021 report from the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, for example, reviewed 27 trials in children and concluded food dyes can interfere with normal behavior in at least some kids.
Nestle — who added that the dyes serve no purpose for food beyond cosmetics — noted that other countries have moved to either restrict or ban them. In those countries, she said, companies have introduced natural alternatives.
“This should have been done a long time ago,” she said. “They’ve been promising to get rid of these things for years and balking. They’ve gotten rid of them in Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. There’s no reason why we can’t use something else.”
Mande said food dyes make ultra-processed foods look more appealing, resulting in overeating and obesity.
“Overweight is the primary food cause of cancer,” he said in an email. “Thus, we must regulate the use of both synthetic and natural colors as well as flavors that allow food companies to transform powders and sludges into calorically dense, hyperpalatable ultra processed ‘foods’ that are making us and our children sick.”
The FDA began looking into a possible link between dyes and behavioral problems in kids in the 1970s, when a California allergist and pediatrician proposed a possible connection. In 2011 and 2019, however, the FDA determined that no causal relationship could be established.
Still, there’s also a growing movement among several states to eliminate dyes.
In March, Kennedy praised Morrisey, the governor of West Virginia, after he signed a law banning seven artificial dyes approved by the FDA. The law, which takes effect in 2028, follows a similar move by California last year that banned six dyes from food served in public schools.
The same month, Kennedy told executives from major food companies in a closed-door meeting that he wanted all of the dyes gone by the end of his term.
In a statement, Melissa Hockstad, president and CEO of the Consumer Brands Association, an industry trade group, said removing artificial dyes won’t “change the consumer packaged goods industry’s commitment to providing safe, affordable and convenient product choices to consumers.”
“The ingredients used in America’s food supply have been rigorously studied following an objective science and risk-based evaluation process and have been demonstrated to be safe,” Hockstad said.
Some food companies have already removed artificial dyes from their products. After public pressure, Kraft voluntarily removed synthetic dyes from its macaroni and cheese in 2015, replacing Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6 with natural coloring. Also in 2015, Nestlé removed Red No. 40 and Yellow No. 5 from over 250 products, including candy bars.
