Kennedy regulating in a de-regulation environment
ALA questions whether the evolving patchwork of state rules should apply to exchanges and commissaries.
Concerns that are concerned Kennedy’s MAHA initiatives could further drive-up food prices.
Definition of ultra-processed food delayed.
Initiatives, including a definition of ultraprocessed food, haven’t materialized as planned.
White House and Trump administration officials have slowed progress on some of Kennedy’s hallmark initiatives—including efforts on ingredient oversight and ultraprocessed food—over concerns they could further drive-up food prices, people familiar with the matter said.
Food-industry groups ar raising concerns about policies being developed at the state level.
Grocery prices in April were roughly 26% higher than they were five years ago, according to the Labor Department.
The Trump administration has made big moves on food, such as securing voluntary commitments from companies to remove artificial dyes and completing a system for reviewing the safety of chemicals in food products, according to senior administration officials. They said such efforts are difficult, time-consuming and require many conversations among agencies, companies and the public.
FDA is under pressure to crack down on refined carbohydrates, citing research showing elevated health risks and Administration officials said the response could be released at any point.
Another initiative—overhauling the FDA’s oversight of new food ingredients—has been unpopular with some White House officials because they see it as adding rules rather than eliminating them, people familiar with the matter said.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has been a key voice on affordability issues and ended up working against Kennedy on a number of policy issues, people familiar with the matter said. Staffers for Rollins have been battling Kennedy allies over how strict school meal dietary rules should be.
The biggest concern for many food companies is a slew of new, MAHA-backed bills moving through the nation’s statehouses that take varying approaches to regulating food additives, ultra-processed foods and more.
Food and beverage companies last year formed a coalition called Americans for Ingredient Transparency to fight what they describe as a “patchwork” of regulations that create a complicated and costly regulatory environment. AFIT, as the group is known, released a study in February showing that legislation passed in Louisiana, Texas and West Virginia—which ban ingredients or require new warning labels or QR codes—would result in a 12% increase in annual grocery spending in those states.
AFIT is pushing for a single, national standard on matters of ingredient safety and transparency, to be set by the FDA.
“For affordability, the patchwork is just the sort of big 800-pound gorilla,” said Rhonda Bentz, executive vice president of public affairs for the Consumer Brands Association, which represents major food companies and is a member of AFIT. “We’re not in the luxury-goods business.”
