"Secretary Kennedy echoes industry talking points on food safety laws"
"For months, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. has crisscrossed the nation advancing his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda — spotlighting plans to crack down on unhealthy ultra-processed foods, and praising state-level efforts to restrict chemical food additives and bolster consumers’ right to know.
At least 90 proposals in dozens of states seek to restrict, ban or label ultra-processed food or synthetic ingredients. The push is based on strong scientific evidence that the poor health of many Americans may arise in part from eating so much ultra-processed food.
“We have more chronic disease than any country in the world, and we know what it is, and we know it’s the food that we’re eating, it’s environmental causes,” Kennedy said this summer, as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed the first state law requiring warning labels on 44 artificial additives or food chemicals not allowed in other countries.
When West Virginia passed the first state law banning several food dyes from school lunches (and eventually from all foods sold in the state), HHS praised the effort in a press release, commending “the 24 states pushing MAHA bills to clean up our food system…”
But last week, in an interview with Bloomberg’s Kristina Peterson, Kennedy struck a different note – one that appears to align with ultra-processed food companies. A national food standard is “on the table for discussion,” Kennedy said. “The fact that this is being driven by the states has brought the industry to the table with us because they don’t want to have rules in 50 different markets; that’s impossible.”"
Stacy Malkan reports for U.S. Right to Know December 17, 2025.
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