1 week Ago By Yelena Mandenberg
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is preparing to announce that food manufacturers will be forced to phase out eight petroleum-based food artificial dyes .
The Health and Human Services Secretary reportedly ‘rattled’ chiefs last month at major U.S. food manufacturing firms after telling them he wanted the additives removed back in March.
He told them to get rid of the dyes by the end of his time in office during a closed-door meeting, according to ABC News . Now, he's making that official, says a NYT report, which claims RFK Jr. will describe the directive 'in detail' at a Washington, DC event tomorrow.
RFK Jr.'s claims against food dyes are disputed. According to Factcheck.
org, petroleum-based dyes, like Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, that RFK Jr. wants to ban, have actually not been shown to cause cancer in humans. Studies show "a possible link" to "symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children.
" "The totality of scientific evidence indicates that most children have no adverse effects when consuming foods containing color additives, but some evidence suggests that certain children may be sensitive to them," the FDA says on its website about food dyes. In a March 28 speech, in West Virginia, alongside Gov. Patrick Morrisey, the Kennedy heir claimed that, “The loneliness, the dispossession, the crisis that we have in mental health, in suicide, in ADD, ADHD, all of these are linked — and particularly to the dyes.
It’s very clear the dyes that Gov. Morrisey is banning, all of them are linked in very, very strong studies to ADHD and to cancers. So we’re seeing an explosion in cancers in this country.
” RFK Jr. also said in a subsequent CBS April interview that "food dyes are kind of the most egregious. They don’t use them in any other country.
" This isn't entirely true - some colors are in fact banned in other countries, though most, including the UK and Australia simply attach a warning label to products with the listed dyes. Susan Mayne, who served as director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration between 2015 and 2023, told FactCheck.org that, "We are seeing rising rates of the obesity-related cancers, and especially in young people, and that is concerning. But focusing in on risk factors where there’s really no significant scientific evidence indicating that they are causing these cancers while omitting ones we know are is really undermining public health.
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