Kennedy Gives Food Company CEOs an Ultimatum
March 11, 2025 | Source: Politico | by Marcia Brown and Adam Cancryn
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered a stark ultimatum to major food company CEOs in a closed-door meeting this week: Ban certain artificial dyes from your products or the government will do it for you.
Kennedy on Monday pressed leaders of companies like PepsiCo, General Mills, Tyson Foods, Smucker’s, Kraft Heinz and Kellogg’s for commitments to reduce food additives, according to a readout of the meeting sent to industry stakeholders and viewed by POLITICO. It was the Health and Human Services secretary’s first major meeting with the very executives he’d spent months accusing of making Americans sick.
“[Kennedy] expressed the strong desire and urgent priority of the administration to remove FD&C colors from the food supply — and he wants this done before he leaves office,” wrote Consumer Brands Association President Melissa Hockstad in the readout sent to industry, referring to color additives used in foods, drugs and cosmetics.
“He expects ‘real and transformative’ change by ‘getting the worst ingredients out’ of food,” she added, quoting the secretary.