Unfortunately, I was correct in my article that raised the question of whether the Trump administration would stand up to the food industry and actually carry through with banning artificial dyes in the American food supply.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a series of new measures that they said will “phase out all petroleum-based synthetic dyes from the nation’s food supply.”
However the measures the agencies announced are limited and weak, based on the voluntary cooperation of the food industry.
“It’s disappointing that Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary would hold a press conference to announce the elimination of food dyes – only for reporters to learn that the only real regulatory moves here are to move to ban two rarely used dyes, Citrus Red 2 and Orange B, ‘within the coming months,’” Peter B. Laurie, M.D., president of Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group, said in a statement.
The agencies announced no rulemaking to remove the remaining six numbered dyes. Instead, the agencies said that the administration has an unspecified “understanding” with some unspecified fraction of the food industry to eliminate dyes.
“We wish Kennedy and Makary well getting these unnecessary and harmful dyes out of the food supply and hope they succeed,” Laurie said. Perhaps the food industry will seek to avoid a vindictive president’s wrath.”
However, he said, history tells us that relying on voluntary food industry compliance has all-too-often proven to be a fool’s errand.
