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Skittles Removes Controversial Additive Targeted by RFK Jr.
Mars Inc.’s Skittles candies are no longer being made with titanium dioxide, a chemical that whitens foods, brightens colours and makes candy appear shiny, the company confirmed to Bloomberg News. The additive was banned in the European Union in 2022 over concerns that nanoparticles of the substance might accumulate in the body and damage DNA. It has also come under scrutiny by the Department of Health and Human Services in recent months under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In 2023, groups including the Environmental Working Group and the Center for Food Safety filed a petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to remove the approval of titanium dioxide as a color additive in food. That petition was still under review as of March 2024, according to the FDA website.
Titanium dioxide hasn’t been banned in the U.S., though Mars pledged to stop using the additive in 2016. It was still listed as an ingredient in Sour Skittles earlier this year. In a statement to Bloomberg News in January, the company said its use of the ingredient was “in compliance with government regulations.”
Children’s Cereals Are Getting Less Healthy, Study Finds
A new study reveals that children’s cereal is becoming less healthy. The study was recently published in the JAMA Network Open by researchers from the University of Kentucky and Louisiana State University. Researchers said ready-to-eat, or RTE, cereals are the most common breakfast food for children in the U.S.
They said while cereal does provide some nutrients, it may also provide more sugar, salt, or fat than recommended. The study examined how the ingredients have changed over time in children’s cereal sold in the U.S. between 2010 and 2023.
Researchers looked at data from the Mintel Global New Products Database, which tracks new food and drink products. They focused on all new children’s cereals sold in the U.S. between Jan. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2023. These cereals were specifically marketed to kids aged 5 to 12.
Sugar Industry Had Dodged RFK Jr.’s Health Drive — Until Now
Sugar producers thought they had escaped Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda. After all, the health secretary had spent much of his time fighting things like pesticides, seed oils and colorings. If anything, his criticism of high-fructose corn syrup could have benefited sugar consumption.
But Kennedy has now added sugar to his list of targets, calling it “poison” in late April. His comment was a talking point for the sugar industry when traders met May 14 for an annual dinner in New York and candy makers gathered in Indianapolis for the Sweets & Snacks Expo.
“We’ve got sugar being chastised again,” Jose Orive, executive director of the International Sugar Organization, said in his speech at the Sugar Club’s 75th dinner. “We’ve got politicians calling it poison. We’ve got all kinds of attacks coming every which way, based on totally groundless claims about what our product represents.”
Texas Legislature Advances Bill to Ban Lab-Grown Meat
Texas lawmakers have taken a stance in the growing debate over the future of meat. Senate Bill 261, which prohibits the sale of lab-grown, or cell-cultured, proteins in the state, has passed the House of Representatives and is headed to the Senate floor for a final vote.
The bill, authored by state Sen. Charles Perry and sponsored by Rep. Stan Gerdes, is designed to shield consumers from what lawmakers and supporters describe as an untested and potentially misleading product, while defending the traditional cattle industry that plays a central role in the state’s economy and identity.
The Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association has thrown its full support behind the bill. Its president, Carl Ray Polk Jr., said the legislation is a much-needed defense against threats to the beef industry.
“Ranchers across Texas work tirelessly to raise healthy cattle and produce high-quality beef,” Polk said. “Our association is grateful for those legislators who voted in support of this legislation and understood the core of this bill — to protect our consumers, the beef industry and animal agriculture.”
It’s Time to Stop the Great Food Heist Powered by Big Business. That Means Taxation, Regulation and Healthy School Meals
Our food system is killing us. Designed in a different century for a different purpose — to mass produce cheap calories to prevent famine — it is now a source of jeopardy, destroying more than it creates. A quarter of all adult deaths globally — more than 12 million every year — are due to poor diets.
Malnutrition in all its forms — undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity — is by far the biggest cause of ill-health, affecting one in three people on the planet. Ultra-processed foods are implicated in as many as one in seven premature deaths in some countries.
Every country is affected by malnutrition but it is the poorest, most marginalized people who are most likely to become malnourished, get sick and die too soon. Our food system is also sickening our planet — generating a third of all greenhouse gas emissions and driving a raft of environmental harms.
As economies grow, countries move from rural, low-productivity agricultural systems — focused on staples — to more diversified systems, including legumes and nutrient-rich foods, and on to commercialized systems, inundated with ultra-processed foods.
