In what Trump administration officials dubbed a “major announcement”, health and agriculture department leaders said the US dairy industry agreed to voluntarily remove synthetic dyes from ice-cream.
The announcement continues the Trump administration’s pattern of voluntary agreements with industry – from health insurers to snack food makers.
“This is relevant to my favorite food, which is ice-cream,” said the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
“Since we came in about five and a half months ago and started talking about eliminating dyes and other bad chemicals from our food, we’ve had this extraordinary response from our industry.”
Representatives of the dairy industry said that more than 40 ice-cream companies agreed not to use synthetic dyes. Kennedy also alluded to the future release of new dietary guidelines, which would “elevate” dairy products, including full-fat dairy, to “where they ought to be in terms of contributing to the health of our children”.
The head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr Marty Makary, also announced that his agency approved a new plant-based dye: “gardenia blue”.
The value of full-fat dairy is an ongoing subject of debate in nutrition research circles. For decades, government health authorities have cautioned against too much saturated fats, sugars and refined grains because of their link to obesity and heart disease. Some high-profile researchers now argue that full-fat dairy may not be as harmful as once thought.
That is a perspective shared by the US dairy industry, which has funded nutrition research and fought against government controls on dairy in school lunches since the Obama administration.
The issue is also important in rural communities across dairy country, where farmers began displaying hand-painted hay bails outside farms with messages such as: “Drink whole milk 97% fat free.”
The Trump administration has held a close relationship with the dairy industry for years, stretching all the way back to the president’s first term. In 2019, then agriculture secretary Sonny Perdue toasted dairy lobbyists with a glass of chocolate milk to celebrate the reintroduction of once-banned flavored milks back into schools.
“This is a great day for dairy and a great day for ‘make America healthy again,’” said Michael Dykes, the president and CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association. “We’re so happy with the voluntary industry-led commitment.”
Notably, the Trump administration’s effort to reach voluntary agreements with industry has also shown the strategy’s limits. For instance, Mars, the maker of Skittles and M&M’s, resisted Kennedy’s efforts. Meanwhile, on health insurance, experts have expressed skepticism that an agreement with private insurers will significantly help Americans.
