The sales growth of real food outpaced ultra-processed foods for the first time by seven percent, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Monday.
“Over the past year, sales growth of real food outpaced ultra-processed foods for the first time by approximately 7 percent, and industry is responding,” Kennedy said on Monday, making a major announcement regarding food policy reforms.
Kennedy noted that many companies have taken actions such as changing the ingredients in their products and removing artificial dyes to better align with the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda. He noted Kellogg’s statement on August 6 announcing that the company will remove artificial coloring from its cereals by the end of 2026, much sooner than planned. The company had originally chosen the end of 2027 as their deadline.
Kennedy continued, “Kraft, Heinz, General Mills, Nestle, Conagra, J.M. Smucker … are all among the companies that have also made major commitments to remove artificial colors and many other additives from their products. This is a fundamental shift. We are changing federal nutrition policy, and Americans are changing the way that they eat, and companies are changing what they put on our store shelves, but HHS cannot complete this work through administrative action alone.”
HHS is using its authority to “strengthen oversight and protect the American food supply, but Congress must build on these actions through legislation,” he said, calling on Congress to give the FDA “additional tools that it needs to keep pace with the changing food supply and protect the American people over the passion.”
Kennedy’s announcement coincides with the Trump administration overhauling the traditional food pyramid, which was introduced at the beginning of the year.
“For decades, the Dietary Guidelines favored corporate interests over common sense, science-driven advice to improve the health of Americans. That ends today,” HHS said in a statement at the time.
Unlike the old food pyramid — which pushed the consumption of ultra-processed foods and highly refined carbohydrates — the revamped food pyramid prioritizes protein, dairy, and healthy fats, along with vegetables and fruit.
The old food pyramid “reflected the mercantile ambitions of those industries and not public health,” Kennedy said at the time. “It pushed Americans toward ultra-processed foods and highly refined carbohydrates that destroyed their metabolic system.”
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