NBC News
The Trump administration announced Monday that it will announce a plan to eliminate the synthetic dyes derived from oil from the country’s food supply.
According to a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS, in English), it is expected that the Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the Commissioner of the Food and Medicines Administration (FDA, in English), Dr. Marty Makary, comment on the plan at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Kennedy has pledged to eliminate artificial food coloring in the country, claiming that they are responsible for behavioral problems in children, including hyperactivity, a relationship that the FDA claims to be investigating, but that has not yet been demonstrated.
The FDA has approved 36 food coloring, nine of which are artificial and are made from oil. The others are obtained from natural sources, such as vegetables.
Among them is red number 3, made from oil, which gives food and drinks a cherry color and was prohibited in January for its possible risk of cancer. Its use in food was approved in 1907. Food companies will have up to 2027 to eliminate this dye; Pharmaceuticals have one more year.
These dyes They are commonly used in thousands of commercial products for childrenlike candies, breakfast cereals and soft drinks, and give them bright and bright colors.
Marion Nestle, Emerita Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at the University of New York, considered that this is an “easy” topic to address for Kennedy.
Although the FDA has not established any relationship, Nestle said there are some studies that indicate that dyes could contribute to behavioral problems in children.
For example, a 2021 report from the California Environmental Health Risk Evaluation Office reviewed 27 trials in children and concluded that food coloring can interfere with the normal behavior of at least some children.
Nestle, who added that dyes have no food utility beyond cosmetics, said other countries have taken measures to restrict or prohibit dyes. In those countries, he said, companies have introduced natural alternatives.
“This should have been done a long time ago”said Nestlé. “They have been promising for years to eliminate these substances and still do not do.
JEROLD MANDE, Deputy Professor of Nutrition at the School of Public Health TH CHAN DE HARVARD, former main advisor of the FDA and former Deputy Secretary of Food Security of the Department of Agriculture, said that food coloring ones make ultraprocessed foods seem more appetizing, which causes excessive consumption and obesity.
“Overweight is the main food cause of cancer”he said in an email. “Therefore, we must regulate the use of synthetic and natural dyes, as well as aromatizers that allow food companies to transform powders and sludge into ultraprocessed, hyperpallatable and dense” foods “in calories that are getting sick to us and our children.”
The FDA began investigating a possible relationship between dyes and behavioral problems in children in the 1970s, when an allergologist and pediatrician from California proposed a possible connection. However, in 2011 and 2019, the FDA determined that a causal relationship could not be established.
Even so, there is also a growing movement in several states to eliminate dyes.
In March, Kennedy praised the governor of West Virginia, Patrick Morrisey, after he signed a law that prohibits seven artificial dyes approved by the FDA. The law will enter into force in 2028. The measure follows a similar California initiative last year, which prohibited six dyes in food served in public schools.
That same month, Kennedy also declared the executives of the main food companies at a closed door that wanted me to All dyes disappeared before they finished their mandate.
The association of consumer brands, a commercial group of the sector, did not respond immediately to a request for comments.
In a statement made in March, Sarah Gallo, a senior vice president of group’s products policy, said that food and beverage manufacturers are committed to food security.
