RFK JR wants bright artificial dyes of food. Are Americans ready to give up? | Food and drink industry star-news.press/wp

R.It has made America’s healthy movement again (Maha) celebrated this month after the American dairy manufacturing voluntarily pledged to remove all artificial dyes from ice cream by 2028. In April, US Health Minister Robert Kennedy Junior Prevail On the food industry to stop using artificial dyes, and many of the largest food manufacturers in the country, including Nestle, Kraft Heinz and Pepsico, already I promised compliance. But the ice cream pledge made Kennedy specially happy because, as he said, the ice cream is his favorite food.

Prepare to say goodbye to the glossy pink (from the red dye No. 40) that indicates strawberries, cold green (yellow 5 and blue 1) of chocolate with mint, and the heroic mixture of Red 40, Blue 1, yellow 5 and 6 which forms Superman.

One of the goals of the MAA movement is to prevent childhood diseases, which Kennedy argues, through, among other things, to address the use of additions in flying foods. A A recent study It was published in the Magazine of the Academy of Nutrition and Nutrition Science, which was calculated, in 2020, 19 % of food products on artificial dyes – “the most anxious”, according to Kennedy. Those dyes, it is ClaimsIt is responsible for a set of health issues, including cancer, hyperactivity and possibly autism.

“The American people have explained – they want real food, not chemicals,” Kennedy said in a statement.

Regardless of jokes on social media about Donald Trump Skin color And the alleged use of Kennedy for Methylin blue (A synthetic dye calls for some to enhance the “mitochondria’s efficiency” and longevity), and the initiative faced little political opposition. In January, when Joe Biden was still president, the FDA announced a ban In the red character No. 3 is scheduled to enter into force in 2027. The Food and Drug Administration (Red 3, the Food and Drug Administration explained that it causes cancer in mice, and although it does not appear in food in large quantities enough to influence humans, it still violates a law that prevents the additive that contains a cancer substance.

Meanwhile, the political various states such as Western Virginia and Tixas and California have already created their ban or requirements that are carried by foods that contain artificial dyes with warning stickers, indicating the need to protect children. (In the United Kingdom and the European Union, the restrictions on artificial dyes were present for years.

Why the uproar on food coloring? Are natural dyes much better for our health?

“They are better for some people’s health,” says Jimmy Alan, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Michigan State University. “There is a very small percentage of children very sensitive to these dyes. And when they eat these dyes, they offer the behaviors that we sometimes link to hyperactivity disorder and lack of attention.”

Alan emphasizes that there is no evidence that these children are already developing ADHD. But research Find That after eating foods that contain certain dyes, children, including those who have been diagnosed with hyperactivity, lack of attention or autism, can show signs of hyperactivity, mood and non -reflection. Although many of these foods, especially sweets and soda, also contain sugar, which has also been linked to excessive active behavior.

Alan recommends that parents speak to a pediatrician and try to follow a diet to ensure that the dye and not another component is responsible. But it greatly supports the gradual disposal of artificial dyes. Most public health advocates believe this Good idea. “In my opinion, because we are talking about children and because they are a weak population, I think this is a great thing to do. But I will realize that it will not affect the vast majority of the population.”

One group that the change in dyes will definitely affect the food manufacturers themselves. TRAVIS Zissu, co -founder and innovation at Scale Food Labs in Golden, Colorado, who provides a program to help manufacturers while converting dye, says the shift from artificial dyes to natural dyes is a complex process.

Unlike artificial dyes, which are derived from oil, natural dyes often come from plants: turmeric, for example, used in young people; Algae and the butterfly peas flower for the blues. Likobin of carrots and tomatoes for the Reds. These dyes can be less stable, so Scale begins to find natural dyes that will not be affected by heat and other chemicals, followed by tests to determine the group of dyes that will produce the most reliable color. Next, Scale helps companies lock contracts that will not force them to raise their prices too much and secure sensitive containers to protect colors. Finally, there are between nine to 12 months of product testing to ensure that production works smoothly and that there are no negative effects of consumers, such as red -dyed stools (something known to happen with beet powder and extraction; Alan says it is not harmful, but he admits that he can be certain).

But Zeso’s greatest interest is that there will be no enough to wrap. He says that the natural demand for colors is already increasing between 30-50 % throughout the industry since food companies began to announce their intentions to stop using artificial color, and the first deadline-2027-is not still years away.

He says: “Simply not enough offer to replace each element in the market,” he says. “You will see the largest companies that close the colors soon, but there will be no enough until 2030.”

There is also concern that American consumers will completely reject the new colors. While their counterparts in Europe, Canada and Japan have accepted the peace of the faded forms of natural dyes, the Americans remain stubbornly associated with sweets and neon pills.

An example of this: In 2015, General Mills pledged to remove all artificial colors and flavors from its products. The following year, she presented a natural version of TRX, a child’s friendly breakfast. But the silent trixx, colored with radish, purple carrots and turmeric, was flipping. Customers missed vibrant colors and complained that the new version did not taste properly. By 2017, “Classic Tricks” returned to grocery stores.

On the other hand, when Kraft reformulated pasta and cheese powder and began quietly selling the entire natural version in December 2015, there was a much less protest. Eating the address At that time, put it: “I changed Kraft Mac and her cheese and no one has noticed it.” Perhaps the marketing strategy – Kraft did not care about issuing a major advertisement until after it sold 50 meters – or perhaps that was because natural dyes were orange like the original. (Alan remembers that her young daughters and her brother were a little bit worried about the change, but she accepted the Mac and the new cheese without a sensation).

As the old saying goes, we eat with our eyes. The appearance of food should not change our perceptions about how it tastes, but, as anyone knows the bought products, it definitely does so. In nature, the most brighter colors indicate that foods are mature and will taste them well. This principle also applies to human food.

As it returns to the Middle Ages, according to AI Hisano, Professor of Business History at Tokyo University and author of the book “Imagine taste”: How did the works change the appearance of what you eat, dairy farmers will mix carrot juice and Annatto from Achiote to their butter to make it more delicious yellow. When scientists discovered petroleum -based dyes in the mid -nineteenth century, the dairy industry was one of the first adopters: artificial dyes were cheaper, and they helped create a uniform insistence of butter and cheese that attracted shoppers.

Soon the other food producers followed his example. The meat will be red! It will be a white sandwich bread! Oranges – which sometimes remained green, even when they were mature – will be orange! By the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States government began organizing food coloring to ensure that it had not killed anyone.

This was also the beginning of the golden age of artificial food such as candy, breakfast, and the most famous, Jell-O, which came in colors unprecedented in nature. Food dye has become vital for the brand, Hisano He writes. Even if a brighter color does not affect the flavor because the food is fully manufactured, then people tangible It is action, and this is what matters. Will the hot films taste hot?

“I assume that many consumers in the early twentieth century were afraid of these bright red foods,” He said Atlantic Ocean In 2017. “But one of the reasons that consumers loved because they were enthusiastic about these colors that they had never seen before.” Knowing that they were organized by the Food and Drug Administration made them feel safe to eat.

Since the identity of its products depends on color, the Kennedy’s most resistant initiative than the dessert manufacturers in America came. A spokesman for the National Association of Sweets He said Makers will not adopt natural dyes until federal regulations force them to do so. Among all American food companies, only Mars, M & MS maker, Skittles and Starburst (by the way, Trump favorite Candy, has not yet vowed to abandon an artificial dye, with the exception of the already banned RED 3. However, the MAKY MAKARY FOX News reported that he believed Mars would come sooner and not later.

Zeso, a dining character adviser, a “race” for research and development “for the development of natural dyes before the 2027 deadline. Indeed, since May, the Food and Drug Administration has approved four new natural colors-three blues and one white-for a wide range of food, including juices, replacing meals based on milk, grains, potatoes, sugar, and chicken products ready to eat.

But Zeso does not believe that the transition to natural dyes means that the color of food will return to pre -industry. “I think we will always see the bright colors in candy and other elements that consumers expect,” he says. “There will be more research for these colors if the artificial (dye) is banned.”

This may also help if America’s food manufacturers are acting collectively, and they seem to do so: the change will be so landf up that, as Ziso says, “the neon creation will look dated like unsaturated fats.” Perhaps within a few years, we will look back at Green Mint Chip Ice-Cream in Wonder. (Some people are already doing: Many ice cream producers are not used, including Ben & Jerry’s and Hägen-Dazs, Green as evidence for Mint.)

Maha seems ready to help shake America from her artificial color relationship. But it celebrates this victory at the same time as the Trump administration is carrying out public health infrastructure.

The pledge of the ice cream manufacturing came just 11 days after Congress passed a draft law for spending Cutting spending medical aidThus health care for millions of children, and cutting sudden food aid to American families. It came on the same day that the Ministry of Health Demobilization Thousands of employees. During the Trump era, the government also cut the research grants to scientists studyAmong other things, prevention of diseases and vaccines (which is notorious Kennedy). Basic issues such as food insecurity, housing and poverty are likely to exacerbate the well -being of children.

Alan believes that if Kennedy is serious about improving children’s health in America, there are more urgent issues of food dye to work on. “I cannot believe that someone will be given an opportunity to make such an effect, and this is what they choose to do,” she says.