RFK Jr.: Era of Poisonous Compounds in Our Food ‘Is Coming to an End’

The era of poisonous compounds being injected into the U.S. food supply is “coming to an end,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday.

“For too long, some food producers have been feeding Americans petroleum-based chemicals without their knowledge or consent,” Kennedy said in the post, alongside a video, on X.

“These poisonous compounds offer no nutritional benefit and pose real, measurable dangers to our children’s health and development. That era is coming to an end,” he said, declaring that the United States is restoring a “gold-standard science, applying common sense, and beginning to earn back the public’s trust.”

“And we’re doing it by working with industry to get these toxic dyes out of the foods our families eat every day,” he added.

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On Tuesday, Kennedy joined Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary in announcing the end of “petroleum-based food dyes” in the U.S. food supply — another key step in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda.

“Today, the FDA is taking action to remove petroleum-based food dyes from the U.S. food supply and from medications,” Makary said, laying out the sad state of affairs as children have been “increasingly … living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals” over the past five decades.

“The scientific community has conducted a number of studies raising concerns about the correlation between petroleum-based synthetic dyes and several health conditions, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, cancer, genomic disruption, GI issues – as I’ve seen in the hospital – and allergic reactions,” he continued.

The FDA’s press release details the six specific actions it will be taking, which include “establishing a national standard and timeline for the food industry to transition from petrochemical-based dyes to natural alternatives,” “initiating the process to revoke authorization for two synthetic food colorings—Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B—within the coming months,” and “working with industry to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes—FD&C Green No. 3, FD&C Red No. 40, FD&C Yellow No. 5, FD&C Yellow No. 6, FD&C Blue No. 1, and FD&C Blue No. 2—from the food supply by the end of next year.”

It also plans to authorize “four new natural color additives” in the coming weeks and partner with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to “conduct comprehensive research on how food additives impact children’s health and development.”

The FDA is also asking companies to remove FD&C Red No. 3 sooner than its required deadline of 2027-2028.

Kennedy noted in his remarks that individuals were far healthier when his uncle, John F. Kennedy, was president in the 1960s.

“There was zero spent in this country treating chronic disease when my uncle was President. Today it’s about $1.8 trillion annually — it’s bankrupting our nation,” he said.

He added:

Seventy-four percent of American kids cannot qualify for military service. How are we going to maintain our global leadership with such a sick population? We have all these autoimmune diseases, these exotic diseases. Again, I never heard of juvenile diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Crohn’s disease, and a hundred others — that were just unknown when I was a kid. I never knew anybody with a peanut allergy, I never knew anybody with a food allergy.

This move also follows Kennedy announcing plans for the Trump administration to release studies showing “precisely what environmental toxins” are causing autism, deeming it an epidemic as the autism rate among children rose yet again.

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