Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a candidate for US President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, testified at a Senate Committee on Finance on January 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
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Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told top food executives on Monday that he wanted “the worst ingredients” from the food and was willing to take action to drive them away.
Removing artificial dyes from the food system is an urgent priority for the Trump administration, and Kennedy said he would like to do so by the end of his inauguration time, according to a memo summarizing a meeting sent by the Consumer Brands Association, which CNBC watched. Kennedy said he wanted to work with the food industry, but he “clears” that if the industry is not aggressive, he will take action.
“It was a constructive conversation. We look forward to continuing engagement with secretaries and qualified professionals within HHS to support public health, build consumer trust and promote consumer choice.”
Meeting attendees included the CEO PepsiCo North America, Craft Heinz, General Mills, Tyson Foods, WK Kellogg, JM Smucker Consumer Brands Association is the industry’s leading trading group.
“I am grateful that the secretary sat down with us and viewed this meeting as a productive step in working with the administration,” a PepsiCo spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.
Bloomberg first reported details of the meeting.
Froot Loops Creeal, sold in Canada, made with natural dyes, left and Froot Loop cereals, sold in the US, and made with artificial dyes located in Brooklyn, USA on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
Lucia Buricelli | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Kennedy is at the helm of a $1.7 trillion agency that oversees food and tobacco products, vaccines and other drugs, scientific research, public health infrastructure and government-funded healthcare.
His so-called Make America Healthy Platform advocates a corrupt alliance of drug companies and food companies and federal health agencies that regulate them. He has been vocal about ending the chronic disease epidemic in children and adults, and has spoken out about making nutritious foods rather than the central medicine of that goal.
In January, before President Donald Trump or Kennedy took office, the Food and Drug Administration revoked approval for one type of red food dye called Red No. 3. Dyes are known to cause cancer in clinical animals, but food manufacturers were allowed to use them for years as scientists didn’t think they would pose a risk of cancer in humans at the level typically consumed.
Kennedy, an infamous vaccine skeptic, is making an early move that could affect vaccination policies and attenuate further declines in the US at a time when vaccination rates in childhood are falling. He said he will consider a childhood vaccination schedule and is reportedly preparing to remove and replace members of external committees that advise the government on vaccine approvals and other major public health decisions, among other efforts.
