Kennedy Wants to Ban Some Food Dyes. Here’s What the Data Shows.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced this week that it would work to remove some artificial dyes from the U.S. food supply, citing concerns about how they might affect children’s health.
There is limited evidence around the health effects of those alternatives, said Emily Barrett, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the Rutgers School of Public Health who has studied food contaminants.
What does the research show?
While there is some research on food dyes and health risks, there are a few factors that make the subject hard to study.
It’s challenging to examine any potential long-term effects, since the dyes pass relatively quickly through the body, said Dr. Sheela Sathyanarayana, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington. The trials that do exist in humans, Dr. Barrett noted, have largely examined the effects in the hours right after children consume artificial dyes.
(Source: The New York Times – April 25, 2025)
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