Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nominated for the president of the United States, Donald Trump, for the Secretary of Health and Human Services testifies during the Senate Finance Committee in the Senate Finance Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office building on January 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Wins mcnamee | Getty Images News | Getty images
The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., told the main food executives on Monday that he wants “the worst ingredients” of food and that he is willing to take measures to get rid of them.
Eliminating artificial dyes from the food system is an urgent priority of the Trump administration, and Kennedy said he wants to do so at the end of his time in office, according to a note that summarizes the meeting sent by the association of consumer brands that was seen by CNBC. While Kennedy said he wanted to work with the food industry, he also “made clear” that he would take measures if the industry was not proactive.
“It was a constructive conversation and we hope to have a continuous commitment with the secretary and the qualified experts within the HHS to support public health, generate consumer confidence and promote consumer choice,” said the CEO of the Association of Consumer Brands, Melissa Hockstad, in a statement to CNBC.
Meeting attendees included the CEO of Pepsic North America, Kraft Heinz, General mills, Tyson Foods, WK Kellogg, JM Smucker and the association of consumer brands, the main commercial group of the industry.
“We appreciate that the secretary takes the time to sit with us and see the meeting as a first productive step to work with the administration,” said a Pepsico spokesman in a statement to CNBC.
Bloomberg first reported the details of the meeting.
Froot Loops cereal, sold in Canada and made with natural dyes, to the left, and Broot Loops cereal, sold in the United States and made with artificial dyes, organized in the Brooklyn district of New York, USA, on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
Lucia Buricelli | Bloomberg | Getty images
Kennedy is in charge of an agency of $ 1.7 billion that supervises food and tobacco products, vaccines and other medications, scientific research, public health infrastructure and medical care financed by the government.
His supposed Make America Healthy Again platform argues a corrupt alliance of food and food companies and federal health agencies that regulate them are causing Americans to be less healthy. He has pledged to end the epidemic of chronic diseases in children and adults, and has talked about making nutritious foods, instead of drugs, fundamental for that goal.
In January, before President Donald Trump or Kennedy assumed the position, the Food and Medicines Administration revoked its authorization of a type of red dye called Network No. 3. It is known that the dye causes cancer in laboratory animals, but food manufacturers allowed themselves to use for years for years because scientists did not believe the risk of cancer in humans at the level that is typically consumed.
Kennedy, a notorious skeptical of the vaccine, is also making early movements that could affect the immunization policy and further reduce absorption in the US. UU. At a time when child vaccination rates are falling. He said he will review the child vaccination schedule and, according to reports, he is preparing to eliminate and replace members of external committees who advise the Government on vaccines approval and other key public health decisions, among other efforts.
