Is Big Food Embracing MAHA?

So far this week, Kraft Heinz said that it would be phasing out the use of all synthetic food dyes by the end of 2027. Then General Mills followed suit, with a focus on removing these inputs from its U.S. retail portfolio, too.

Now Starbucks is the latest to take down a red dye pill, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sharing details from a meeting with the coffee giant’s CEO, Brian Niccol, this week stating that Niccol “shared the company’s plans to further MAHA its menu.”

Details remain scarce about what changes will ensue, but Kennedy highlighted that the chain already avoids synthetic dyes, artificial flavors, high-fructose corn syrup and other additives, and it seems the primary focus may fall on sugar contents, per a Bloomberg report. Starbucks recently debuted a new protein-infused cold foam that can be added to any iced beverage while its company’s checkout-area cold case is already stocked with better-for-you products including Koia, Sol-ti, Olipop, Siete, KIND and most recently, All In Foods, among others.

These updates come just weeks after the White House published its inaugural MAHA report, spearheaded by Kennedy, among others, which garnered criticism for highlighting a handful of issues while the Administration took actions that run directly in opposition to solving those challenges. The same week the report was published, identifying the lack of access children have to whole, nutrient-dense food, House Republicans pushed forward on a bill that would cut SNAP benefits by $300 billion, impacting over 4 million children.

On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a new guidance soliciting public comments on the agency’s plan for prioritizing food chemicals reviews, both additives and contaminants. Among a handful of “public health” criteria, such as an increase in exposure and known exposure among vulnerable populations, the agency has also proposed prioritizing additive reviews if the input has received “high attention” congress or mass media publications.

Kennedy has positioned eradicating synthetic food dyes from the U.S. food supply as one of the MAHA movement’s core initiatives. As grocery industry expert Errol Schweizer told Nosh after the report’s release: “This is still a populist moment for these issues.” But he emphasized that doesn’t mean what they say will amount to action.

“The report and the supporters of MAHA use a lot of future tense or passive verbs when they’re talking about what is going on,” Schweizer told Nosh. “A friend of mine, who I didn’t realize was a MAHA supporter, texted me saying, ‘oh, Trump is considering doing this.’ You can either do it or not. You can consider whatever you want. That doesn’t matter. But that’s the problem here.”

The administration has stated a follow-up report will be published in August outlining how regulators and industry can effect change on the issues identified. But Schweizer emphasized that even that secondary document will likely be incomplete as the issues identified in the first don’t fully address the larger problems at play, adding that “the way [the report] was structured misses the forest for the trees.”

“The issues that [the report] speaks to around chronic illness, ultraprocessed foods, [and] agrochemicals are the result of… who’s making these decisions, the companies that control the commanding heights of food production, seed, agrochemicals, wholesale distribution, manufacturing, processing, retail, even food banking and access,” he continued. “[These are] massive concentrations of wealth and ownership, which results in huge gaps in poverty, inequality and access to healthy and nutritious foods.”