Artificial dyes to be phased out of food products

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Tuesday a ban on artificial dyes in the country’s food supply.

The FDA banned Red Dye 3 in January, and the new ban targets six other synthetic dyes and two food colorings.

The ingredients are found in processed foods like candies, cereals, drinks and even some medicine.

Kennedy claims the dyes are responsible for behavioral issues in children, though the FDA in 2011 and 2019 determined no relationship between the two could be established.

“On one level, it makes sense to ban them because they’re artificial, they don’t have any nutritional value. However, the evidence to show that they are harmful for human consumption is very scant,” Dr. Andrew Wong of Hartford HealthCare said.

“The food products that they’re in are processed foods, so banning them isn’t a bad thing. Avoiding processed foods in general is a good thing, and replacing those dyes with natural substances like carrot juice, watermelon juice and beet juice may be a good move, but there just isn’t a lot of evidence to show that these dyes are indeed harmful,” he continued.

Doctors said the dyes are in processed foods that should be avoided anyway, especially for children.

“Like anything else, it’s not necessarily getting in a little bit that’s harmful. It’s really more, are our children consuming Cheetos every day? Are we drinking high sugar content and artificial drinks every day? That’s what we really need to avoid is having a diet based on processed foods,” Wong said.

“Having a diet based on artificial ingredients…parents want to avoid doing that because in the long term, I can certainly see a correlation with poor diet and poor developmental growth,” he continued.

NBC Connecticut spoke to consumers about the issue, and they agree that the dyes should be removed.

“The more natural our food is, the better,” Nick Dellaera, of Burlington, said.

“Health is wealth, and if we don’t have our health, we have nothing,” Paulette Bowman, of Windsor, said.

The change authorizes four new natural color additives. The head of the FDA suggested using beet or carrot juice, and said the ban won’t raise the cost of food.

“The transition from petroleum-based food dyes to natural ingredient food dyes, will not increase food prices. We know that from other countries that have already made the transition,” Marty Makary, FDA commissioner, said.