Tyson Foods has been “proactively reformulating” food products containing petroleum-based synthetic dyes and plans to finish work to eliminate them from its production process by the end of May, CEO Donnie King said on Monday.
Most of the meat company’s retail-branded products, including Tyson chicken nuggets, do not contain those types of dyes, King said on an earnings call.
US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and FDA commissioner Marty Makary said last month that the agency plans to remove synthetic food dyes from the US food supply by revoking authorisations of some and working with the industry to voluntarily remove others.
Kennedy said that the efforts to remove additives from food were necessary to address chronic diseases in children and, without evidence, suggested that it would address rising rates of conditions ranging from ADHD to food allergies.
No products that Tyson offers in school nutrition programs include petroleum-based synthetic dyes, King said.
- Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Mark Porter, of Reuters.
