Happy Friday, and welcome to Food Fix. To say everyone in food policy world is busy right now is an understatement. So much news, so little time!
Food Fix on air: I recently joined WNYC’s On the Media to talk about the history of MAHA and how it compares to former first lady Michelle Obama’s work on food policy. My conversation with Brooke Gladstone starts around the 38 minute mark.
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As always, I welcome your feedback. Reply to this email or drop me a note: helena@foodfix.co.
Alright, let’s get to it –
Helena
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Washington enters its MAHA era — and everyone is struggling to keep up
“Make America Healthy Again” took Washington by storm this week.
For context: I’ve been covering food policy for 15 years, and I cannot remember a busier week, not ever. Everyone who works in this space is struggling to keep up with the pace of news. There is so much happening, and it often feels impossible to stay on top of everything. I could have written ten newsletters this week. Instead, I’ve distilled everything down into one rundown of what you need to know:
A big meeting: On Monday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sat down with several CEOs of the biggest U.S. food companies, including PepsiCo, General Mills and Kraft-Heinz, and essentially gave the industry an ultimatum: Get synthetic dyes (and other controversial ingredients) out of your food, or the government will crack down. (Pssst: Paid Food Fix subscribers got the scoop on what was said during that meeting — upgrade here so you don’t miss out.)
A new sheriff: Right after the big CEO meeting Monday, HHS announced Kennedy had directed the FDA to look at closing the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) loophole, which allows food and chemical makers to self-determine whether an ingredient is safe, often without FDA’s knowledge. It’s not altogether surprising — lax food additive regulation is one of the animating MAHA complaints — but it’s a notable move in an administration that’s largely focused on deregulation.
To further drive the point home, Kennedy posted a video on social media about his meeting with food leaders: “They understand that they have a new sheriff in town here at FDA, at HHS and in the White House, and that President Trump wants something that is going to happen not in 10 years, not in four years, not even in three years, but he wants it to happen right now,” Kennedy said.
Later that evening, Kennedy appeared in a primetime segment on Fox News with Sean Hannity. They filmed in a Steak N Shake, where Kennedy praised the fast-food chain for switching to beef tallow to fry their fries instead of seed oils. “We are poisoning ourselves and it’s coming principally from these ultra-processed foods,” Kennedy said. (Nevermind much of the meal before him was ultra-processed, including the fries, which are reportedly still coated with seed oils and include many other ingredients. At one point, a large milkshake is brought to the table and Kennedy has it removed, citing its sugar content.)
MAHA at the White House: On Wednesday, the White House held not one but two MAHA events. First, the MAHA Commission held its first meeting of cabinet-level officials. Food Fix readers might recall that panel was established right when Kennedy was sworn in a few weeks ago. The commission has until May to come up with findings and then another 80 days to come up with recommendations — much of the MAHA agenda is expected to come directly from that commission.
Right after the commission met, the White House hosted a MAHA moms roundtable, with a handful of key cabinet officials. Both of these events were closed press, which does not fit with the Kennedy pledge of “radical transparency.” I asked the White House about this and was told by an official that the roundtable was “closed to press out of consideration for the MAHA moms who were in attendance given that most of them are not public figures who want to be in the media spotlight.”
“There was no deliberate conspiracy to conceal what the Commission is looking at,” the official said, noting that President Donald Trump outlined the scope and topics in an executive order last month.
Per the White House, participants included: Kennedy, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins; Vince Haley, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council; Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary; Alina Habba, White House counselor; May Davis Mailman, White House chief policy strategist; Heidi Overton, deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council; Sonny Nelson, White House director of media affairs; Dorothy Fink, an endocrinologist and deputy assistant secretary for women’s health at HHS; Sara Brenner, acting commissioner of FDA; Stephanie Haridopolos, a physician and wife of Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-Fl.); Stacy Krys, a nutritionist and holistic health coach; Jayme Franklin, founder of The Conservateur and former White House aid; Vani Hari, author and founder of Food Babe; Stephanie Chawla, a school lunchroom expert and physician assistant; Barbie Markey, former cheerleader and holistic health coach, as well as several other MAHA moms.
The roundtable was moderated by Kennedy and was broken into four main segments: nutrition, physical activity, over-medicalization and standards of care, and environmental impacts.
Within hours of the back-to-back MAHA meetings, the White House had put together and posted a video on social media highlighting cabinet members and moms struggling to pronounce certain food ingredients. Certainly there were scientists on social media who were quick to argue that hard to pronounce doesn’t mean unsafe — like riboflavin, which is Vitamin B2 — but the overall message I got was this: The Trump administration does not care at all what anyone thinks about these kinds of stunts, least of all scientists and the food industry. The administration sees this as a winning political issue, and they may very well be right about that.
Upside down world: Publicly, food industry leaders are saying they want to work with RFK Jr., privately however, the industry is freaking out. I feel like a broken record here, but it really cannot be said enough: The food policy landscape has been completely upended in a short time. Republicans were once reliable defenders of the food industry, but all of the sudden it’s politically toxic to do so. The Donald Trump-RFK Jr. alliance, paired with growing anti-corporate populism, has created a unique opening for MAHA to command real power in Washington.
While Kennedy is facing intense criticism for his handling of a tragic and expanding measles outbreak and his vaccine stances remain deeply unpopular, the food side of the MAHA agenda commands more mainstream support. Just look at the bills banning food additives that are flying through state legislatures in both red and blue states. It’s all changed so fast, it feels like an upside down world.
Dietary Guidelines shake up? Adding to an already busy week, Kennedy and Rollins also pledged to work together on updating the Dietary Guidelines — aka the government’s official nutrition advice, which is slated to be updated in 2025.
“We will make certain the 2025-2030 Guidelines are based on sound science, not political science,” Rollins said in a statement. “Gone are the days where leftist ideologies guide public policy.”
This caught my eye and struck me as sort of strange. The last iteration of the Dietary Guidelines was issued by the first Trump administration. Either way, the statement signaled to me that some kind of shakeup to the guidelines might be coming.
Staffing drama: As if that wasn’t enough news for one week, the FDA also named Hilary Perkins its new general counsel — the agency’s top lawyer, essentially. Then two days later, she resigned after Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) reportedly refused to support Trump’s FDA commissioner pick, Marty Makary, due to Perkins’ appointment. (Perkins had previously defended the Biden administration on cases involving abortion rights and vaccine mandates.)
Taking stock: It’s hard to know what to make of all of this, especially as everyone is dizzy keeping up with the news. One thing that is clear, for now: The food policy landscape has fundamentally changed, and things are going to be chaotic going forward.
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What I’m reading
US senators to urge USDA to reinstate canceled local food programs (Reuters). “Democrats in the U.S. Senate will ask the Department of Agriculture to reverse the cancellation of programs that have funneled more than $2 billion for local food purchases to schools and food banks, according to a copy of a letter seen by Reuters,” Leah Douglas reports. “The cancellation of the local food purchasing programs is the latest blow to farmers from the Trump administration’s actions to slash government spending and staff. Farmers have already seen grants frozen by USDA, commodity sales for foreign aid disrupted and a trade war with the country’s top agricultural trading partners. The letter will be sent to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins from Senators Adam Schiff, Ben Ray Lujan, Amy Klobuchar, Jeanne Shaheen and others, according to a Senate aide. The cancellation of the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement program and the Local Food for Schools program would harm farmers in every state, the letter says. ‘At a time of uncertainty in farm country, farmers need every opportunity to be able to expand market access for their products,’ it says. Klobuchar is the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee. Schiff and Lujan are also committee members.”
What 6 food and beverage companies are saying about tariffs (Food Dive). “Tariffs, tariff delays and retaliatory tariffs have resulted in a never-ending drumbeat of news during the past few months, leaving food and beverage companies struggling to keep up,” Christopher Doering writes. “While the tariffs are set to raise some costs for food and beverage manufacturers, a majority say the impact won’t be detrimental to their bottom line. For the most part, companies aren’t planning major price increases in response to tariffs, especially as persistent inflation dampens consumer spending. Instead, the bigger issue could arise from countries’ retaliatory responses to Trump, which has already resulted in boycotts of U.S. products. Lawson Whiting, the CEO of Jack Daniel’s owner Brown-Forman, said earlier this month that removing U.S. products from shelves is ‘worse than a tariff.’ Still, duties could present a more pressing challenge for those businesses with more exposure to the agriculture sector. Canada suspended imports from a Smithfield pork processing plant, while top agricultural buyer China implemented a 15% tariff on U.S. agricultural products including beef, pork and soybeans.”
Judge orders VA, DoD, USDA and others to offer reinstatement to thousands of fired probationary employees (WUSA9). “A federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration Thursday to offer reinstatement to thousands of probationary federal workers fired en masse over the last month,” Jordan Fischer reports. “U.S. District Judge William Alsup said he was ordering the government to offer reinstatement to probationary workers fired the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Energy, Treasury, Interior and Agriculture. Alsup described the mass terminations as a ‘sham’ designed to avoid civil service protections required under normal reductions in force (RIF) that require federal agencies to, among other things, give states advance notice and consider factors like tenure, veteran status and past performance ratings. The order comes after the Trump administration declined to bring Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Acting Director Charles Ezell into court to defend a memo from his agency directing the mass terminations. Alsup ruled last month OPM had overstepped its constitutional authority and ordered the memo rescinded. Instead of Ezell showing up to testify as ordered, the Justice Department said it had decided to withdraw a previous declaration he’d made to the court. Alsup, who has served as a federal judge since being appointed to the bench in 1999 by former President Bill Clinton, said the Trump administration had lied about the mass firings and then refused to provide Ezell’s testimony in a further attempt to hide the truth.”
Blumenthal slams Trump administration’s actions weakening food safety (Senate). Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, slamming her decision to terminate the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) and National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI) and calling for their reinstatement, per a press release by the lawmaker. “The NACMCF provides impartial, scientific advice and recommendations to USDA on microbiological and public health issues relative to the safety of the U.S. food supply while NACMPI advises on matters affecting federal and state inspection program activities. This Administrations misguided attempt at ‘reducing bureaucracy’ threatens to halt any progress made toward strengthening the safety of our food supply. I urge you to reestablish these advisory committees, as dismissing scientific expertise on the heels of several food contaminations – some deadly – is dangerous and irresponsible.”
There’s a Class II recall on more than 75,000 bottles of International Delight coffee creamer across 31 states (Food & Wine). “International Delight has issued a massive recall for two of its flavors. On February 21, Danone US, the parent company of International Delight, issued a voluntary recall for its Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon Roll Creamer and its Hazelnut Creamer following consumer complaints that the products had spoiled and caused illness,” Stacey Leasca reports. “On March 12, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the recall a new Class II classification, which it defines as ‘a situation in which use of or exposure to a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.’ The recalled product, the FDA’s statement added, was distributed to retail locations across 31 states. In total, the recall includes 4,762 cases (totaling 28,572 bottles) of the hazelnut creamer and 7,747 cases (totaling 46,482 bottles) of the Cinnabon Classic flavor.”
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