FDA stops short of synthetic food dye ban, calls on industry to stop use
CBSN
The Food and Drug Administration is asking the food industry to stop using synthetic food dyes, in a bid to fulfill one of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s goals to swap them out with natural alternatives in the U.S. food supply.
FDA's move stops short of the outright ban that had been floated for in Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" platform from the campaign trail. Instead, it relies on what the agency called a "national standard and timeline for the industry" to voluntarily make the switch.
"Today, the FDA is asking food companies to substitute petrochemical dyes with natural ingredients for American children as they already do in Europe and Canada," FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said in a statement released by the Department of Health and Human Services.
