The U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants to phase out some food dyes. While some of that effort predated the second Trump administration — like banning red dye No. 3 from foods in January — U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Tuesday a list of eight artificial dyes to be eliminated from food and medications by the end of 2026. Kennedy, who has long criticized artificial food dyes, called them "poisonous compounds." Some of his views, including on vaccines and autism, promote ideas that have been widely debunked and criticized as harmful. At the Tuesday announcement, Kennedy and FDA commissioner Marty Makary said there's a possible link between consumption of the dyes and health conditions like ADHD, obesity and diabetes. But they did not specify which studies they were referring to — and it's an area many scientists say requires more robust research. "The information out there is just so minuscule in the scheme of science that it's really hard to make those generalizations," said Emily Acri, a clinical dietitian at Yale New Haven Hospital. Some studies have linked food dyes with hyperactivity, like a 2007 placebo-control study of fewer than 300 children published in The Lancet, a peer reviewed journal. But there's no conclusive evidence proving the dyes cause ADHD — even though scientists have been looking into the potential association for over three decades.
Read more of CBC's Jennifer Yoon and Amina Zafar's fact check here. | 
