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Kennedy Rattles Food Companies With Vow to Rid Food of Artificial Dyes
The New York Times ^ | March 11, 2025 Updated 4:29 p.m. ET | Julie Creswell and Christina Jewett

Posted on 03/11/2025 5:27:19 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

In his first meeting with top executives from PepsiCo, W.K. Kellogg, General Mills and other large companies, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, bluntly told them that a top priority would be eliminating artificial dyes from the nation’s food supply.

At the Monday meeting, Mr. Kennedy emphasized that it was a “strong desire and urgent priority” of the new Trump administration to rid the food system of artificial colorings.

In addition, he warned the companies that they should anticipate significant change as a result of his quest for “getting the worst ingredients out” of food, according to a letter from the Consumer Brands Association, a trade group. The Times reviewed a copy that was sent to the group’s members after the meeting.

And while Mr. Kennedy said in the meeting that he wanted to work with the industry, he also “made clear his intention to take action unless the industry is willing to be proactive with solutions,” the association wrote.

“But to underscore, decision time is imminent,” Melissa Hockstad, who attended the meeting and is the group’s president, wrote in the letter.

Later on Monday, Mr. Kennedy issued a directive that would also affect food companies nationwide. He ordered the Food and Drug Administration to revise a longstanding policy that allowed companies — independent of any regulatory review — to decide that a new ingredient in the food supply was safe. Put in place decades ago, the policy was aimed at ingredients like vinegar or salt that are widely considered to be well-understood, and benign. But the designation, known as GRAS, or “generally recognized as safe,” has since grown to include a far broader array of natural and synthetic additives.

Mr. Kennedy had vowed to upend the food system as a way to address growing...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: dyes; food; foodcompanies; rfkjr
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Works for me.
1 posted on 03/11/2025 5:27:19 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

yep, good stuff.


2 posted on 03/11/2025 5:34:06 PM PDT by Skwor
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

There’s way too many additives in food.


3 posted on 03/11/2025 5:34:23 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (It is long past time to dump the entire Treasury drawer and throw away the crap.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Kennedy is about ***this><close*** to running out of bubble gum.


4 posted on 03/11/2025 5:37:46 PM PDT by one guy in new jersey
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
This is good. But it's funny, because aren't Democrats "supposed to be" for something like this, and Republicans against it?

Are Dems full on supporters of Big Business now?

5 posted on 03/11/2025 5:41:01 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: Skwor
yep, good stuff.

Yup. Dyes are completely unnecessary. If you want your cherry Coke to be red, cut yourself, bleed into it. Maybe then you'll realize how stupid it is to have to color everything.

6 posted on 03/11/2025 5:43:12 PM PDT by Malsua
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To: Blood of Tyrants

> There’s way too many additives in food. <

On perhaps a related note, I recently bought a loaf of name-brand rye bread. When I got home I checked the ingredient list. The first ingredient was wheat flour. Rye flour was the second ingredient.

How can they get away with calling that rye bread?


7 posted on 03/11/2025 5:43:13 PM PDT by Leaning Right (It’s morning in America. Again.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
I thought we voted the Democratic Nanny Party out of office?

RFK - do not tell grown up, healthy, Conservatives, what they can and cannot eat!

Democrat tort lawyers will be suing every business in the USA Food Chain.

The price of food will go up another 30% so food companies can insure against lawsuits.

8 posted on 03/11/2025 5:43:37 PM PDT by zeestephen (Trump Landslide? Kamala lost the election by 230,000 votes, in WI, MI, and PA.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Get rid of ———
Hi fructose corn syrup
Hydrogenated oils
All chemical colorings
Preservatives


9 posted on 03/11/2025 5:44:44 PM PDT by Bobbyvotes (I am in mid-80's and I am not gonna change my opinions.)
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To: zeestephen

Heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, cancer will GO DOWN 30%
with healthy foods.


10 posted on 03/11/2025 5:47:01 PM PDT by Bobbyvotes (I am in mid-80's and I am not gonna change my opinions.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
It's an improvement, but it's deck chairs on the Titanic, compared to the larger problems in what passes for food these day.

Elimination even has a modest downside. I was using the presence of any colorant as an instant disqualifier in a processed food-like substance. I'm considering consumption after all, and not planning to frame it.

11 posted on 03/11/2025 5:47:04 PM PDT by Boundless (You don't need to wait for MAHA.)
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To: Bobbyvotes

MSG and aspartame.


12 posted on 03/11/2025 5:47:23 PM PDT by wally_bert (I cannot be sured for certain, but in my personal opinion I am certain that I am not sure..)
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To: All

Leave my red dye No.3 alone. I love my Skittles and strawberry milk just the way it is.


13 posted on 03/11/2025 5:47:41 PM PDT by BipolarBob (Whoever said "out of sight, out of mind" never had a snake disappear in their bedroom.)
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To: Leaning Right

Correct, ingredients must be listed in decreasing order of concentration. Same with “olive oil” mayo, the first ingredient is soybean oil. It’s a scam, they go with the cheapest ingredients.


14 posted on 03/11/2025 5:53:26 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
I'd like HFCS and Aspartame removed from food!

Go back to sugar and re-evaluate the wonderful tasting Sodium Cyclamate as a non-caloric sweetener.. it's still in use elsewhere..

Anyone remember how great the old soda Tab tasted?!

Then they outlawed Cyclamates and Tab ended up tasting awful with saccharine in it :-(


15 posted on 03/11/2025 5:53:36 PM PDT by Bobalu (I can’t even feign surprise anymore...)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

There will be pushback, of course.


16 posted on 03/11/2025 5:57:57 PM PDT by GSWarrior
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I’d ban artificial sweeteners and HFCS.

Sugar and Stevia for sweeteners.


17 posted on 03/11/2025 6:00:23 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: zeestephen

You support poisons in your food?

Yeah, go ahead with your red dye #2.

The food industry abused the whole GRAS system and have proven they need stricter supervision.

To not see the dim-rats were totally beholden to the big players is to feign ignorance.


18 posted on 03/11/2025 6:02:14 PM PDT by Don W (When blacks riot, neighborhoods and cities burn. When whites riot, nations and continents burn)
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To: zeestephen

Dude. The Democrat have already been doing that.


19 posted on 03/11/2025 6:03:52 PM PDT by Pikachu_Dad
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

https://www.healthline.com/health/yellow-5#research


20 posted on 03/11/2025 6:05:13 PM PDT by Arcadian Empire (The Baric-Daszak-Fauci spike protein, by itself, is deadly.)
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