Food and nutrition policy dominated the keynote address by HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and speakers during the MAHA Rally for Real Food event in Austin, Tx, last weekend. Kennedy framed federal procurement as the primary lever for reshaping the US food system.
“We pay for so much food,” Kennedy said. “USDA alone pays for $405 million a day for school lunches, Head Start program, WIC program, food stamps, SNAP program, Indian Health Services, food programs. And this is going to dictate what our children can be fed.”
Kennedy argued that changes to dietary guidance and purchasing standards will directly affect school meals, military food programs and SNAP.
Synthetic dyes and ingredient oversight
A central theme of Kennedy’s remarks was the elimination of petroleum-based synthetic dyes – a hot button topic for states and industry stakeholders alike.
“By the end of this year, all nine petroleum-based synthetic food dyes will be gone,” he said. These dyes include Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, Blue No. 1, Blue No. 2, and Green No. 3, along with Citrus Red No. 2, Orange B and Red No. 3, according to FDA.
He tied dye removal to broader reform of the GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) framework, calling it structurally flawed.
“The grass standards was the biggest lie of all,” Kennedy said, describing how companies could “self-affirm” safety determinations. “You can add any ingredient to American food. You don’t have to show any studies. You just have to tell FDA, ‘We studied it and it’s safe.’”
He said the administration has “closed the loophole so that any new ingredient has to go through an approval process and has to have proof of safety,” and that prior determinations will be revisited. California’s recent Assembly Bill 2034 introduced last month targets self-affirmed GRAS notices with the intention to ban food additives that are deemed unsafe or poorly tested.
Retailers and brands also are moving away from synthetic dyes. Target announced that it will discontinue selling cereals containing synthetic dyes by end of May. Kellogg, which makes Froot Loops and Apple Jacks which are sold in Target, announced its move to remove artificial dyes by 2027.
Kennedy also criticized historical dietary guidance, saying the government “lied to us for 50 years about the food pyramid,” particularly regarding saturated fats, which he said lacked definitive scientific evidence of harm.
The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans have received mixed reviews. On one end, beef and livestock stakeholders applauded certain recommendations around increased animal protein intake – with guidance to nearly double animal meat compared to the previous edition of the guidelines. On the other are health and nutrition professionals and groups pushing back on the same guidance which also recommends reducing saturated fat intake, citing that an increase in these foods are a health risk.
SNAP, school meals and ultra-processed foods
SNAP purchasing patterns were another focal point of Kennedy’s keynote.
“Why are we paying for soda and candy for the poorest 63 million kids in this country?” he asked. “If somebody wants to buy a Coke in this country, they ought to be able to do it. The taxpayer shouldn’t have to fund it.”
He added, “We’re giving them diabetes, and then we’re paying for it.”
White House Senior Advisor Calley Means reinforced those points, particularly around dyes and school meals.
Referring to Kennedy’s discussions with food companies, Means said: “He said, ‘You are going to get these damn dyes out of our food. We are going to do it the easy way or the hard way, but this is going to happen.’” Means added that “most major players in the US food supply voluntarily committed to remove those food dyes.”
On SNAP, Means asked: “Why is the No. 1 item soda, and why is the third most popular item potato chips, and why is the fourth most popular item on SNAP candy? Why are we subsidizing… toxic food?”
He also emphasized the economic impact of federal dietary guidance. Means referred to the new food pyramid which is displayed upside down with animal products at the top and whole grains at the bottom “as one of the single most important procurement documents in the United States.”
He continued, “Hundreds of billions of dollars of procurement flow from this pyramid… 45 million school meals a day,” including SNAP.
He added that “70% of school meals right now is ultra-processed food.”
UPFs in schools is another target for California’s food policy. Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the state’s bipartisan Assembly Bill 1264 which phases out UPFs from public school meals.
UPF labeling
In a separate appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, Kennedy expanded on food labeling plans.
He said UPF labeling will be required on all packaged foods, with a formal definition expected by April. Possible approaches to front-of-pack labeling include a stoplight-style labeling system – green, yellow and red – and potentially moving away from the traditional black-and-white Nutrition Facts panel that emphasizes saturated fat, sodium and added sugars.
Public health response on Dietary Guidelines and UPFs
Not all public health experts agree with the administration’s framing of food and nutrition policy.
Medical journal The Lancet recently published a review titled “Robert F. Kennedy Jr: 1 year of failure,” assessing his first year as HHS secretary and questioning his broader public health leadership and direction.
MAHA was contacted for comment regarding The Lancet’s review but did not respond by press time.
The Lancet also published a commentary on health and policy gaps in the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The commentary was co-authored by The Center for Science in the Public Interest and the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Nutrition submitted a petition a day after the release of the DGA on Jan. 8 calling for what PCRM’s Director Neal Barnard called a "mulligan“ citing a need for evidence-backed approaches to the guidance.
While a federal definition of UPFs is in the works, some industry stakeholders are concerned that fortified foods will be grouped under the UPF umbrella, creating unnecessary confusion for consumers and harm to brands that offer nutrient-forward processed foods.
A MAHA Commission’s report described UPFs as foods high in sugars, chemical additives and saturated fats, which lead to increased caloric intake and weight gain. According to a 2025 CDC report, UPFs are defined as “hyperpalatable, energy-dense, low in dietary fiber and contain littler or no whole foods, while having high amounts of salt, sweeteners and unhealthy fats.
