FDA slammed over new loophole relaxing artificial food dye ban

Published February 21, 2026 6:13pm ET



The Food and Drug Administration has come under fire for a recent move that relaxes a key goal of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement: zero artificial food dyes.

The FDA announced in early February that food companies would be able to label their products as containing “no artificial colors” as long as they don’t use petroleum-based dyes. Previously, companies could only include that label if they didn’t use artificial food dyes at all.

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