OAN Staff Abril Elfi
6:15 PM – Tuesday, April 22, 2025
United States Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary have announced a new ban of petroleum-based synthetic dyes from America’s food supply.
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“Today, the FDA is taking action to remove petroleum-based food dyes,” said Makary as he kicked off the press conference.
“For the last 50 years, American children have increasingly been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals,” he said. “The scientific community has conducted a number of studies raising concerns about the correlation between petroleum-based synthetic dyes and several health conditions, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, cancer, genomic disruption, and GI issues.”
Makary outlined a number of steps that will be taken and noted: “As I know from my experience taking care of children as a doctor, you have to always listen to the mom.”
Dr. Mark Hyman, a wellness advocate and founder of Function Health, also spoke and supported the announcement.
“No parent should have to guess whether the food they’re giving their child contains substances banned in Europe allowed here,” Hyman said.
“No doctor should watch their patients struggle with chronic illness tied to ultra-processed food and be powerless to change it because our food policies are decades behind the science.”
Kennedy then took to the podium and applauded supporters of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement.
“I want to commend food companies for working with us to achieve this agreement or settlement,” he said.
“When I went in a few months ago to meet with food companies, I was talking with my staff about this … and I said, if they want to eat petroleum, they ought to eat it themselves at home and they shouldn’t be feeding it to the rest of us.”
“Four years from now, we’re going to have most of these products off the market, or you will know about them when you’re at the grocery store,” he added.
Fox News Digital questioned Kennedy Jr., during the Q&A portion of the press conference, about how Americans will be able to identify products that comply with the phase-out of petroleum-based dyes.
“We’re looking at labeling. We have to go to Congress for that — but one of the things that we’re going to do is post all the information we have about every additive on an open-source website,” he said. “And we’re going to encourage companies … to develop apps in the private marketplace where mothers can go in and scan a barcode of every product in their grocery store and know what’s in them and what’s not.”
According to the National Library of Medicine’s article, “The artificial food dye blues,” the colors are often found in breakfast cereals, confectionery, snacks, beverages, vitamins, and “other products [that are] aimed at children.”
Petroleum-based synthetic dyes are used to color food and pharmaceutical products.
“Food dye consumption per person has increased fivefold in the United States since 1955, with three dyes — Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6 — accounting for 90% of the dyes used in foods,” the article noted.
The FDA stated that there are nine petroleum-based chemical dyes allowed in U.S. food and 36 color additives approved.
In the Tuesday press release, the HHS stated that among the steps to be taken, some include “establishing a national standard and timeline for the food industry to transition from petrochemical-based dyes to natural alternatives; initiating the process to revoke authorization for two synthetic food colorings — Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B — within the coming months; and working with industry to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes — FD&C Green No. 3, FD&C Red No. 40, FD&C Yellow No. 5, FD&C Yellow No. 6, FD&C Blue No. 1, and FD&C Blue No. 2 — from the food supply by the end of next year.”
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