Dairy Industry Says It Will Remove Artificial Dyes From Food Sold to Schools

Dairy companies have vowed to remove certified artificial dyes from products sold to schools under a new voluntary pledge unveiled by the International Dairy Foods Association on April 22. The pledge, signed by numerous companies, says that businesses selling food to schools for national school lunch and breakfast programs will stop adding artificial dyes to the products by July 2026, or the start of the 2026-2027 school year. Nearly 30 million children participate in the school meal programs.

Industry officials say most dairy products sold to schools are already free of artificial dyes because companies have removed or replaced them. Some products, though, contain Red 3, Red 40, Green 3, Blue 1, Blue 2, Yellow 5, or Yellow 6. “American children have increasingly been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals.



The scientific community has conducted a number of studies raising concerns about the correlation between petroleum-based synthetic dyes and several health conditions, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, cancer, genomic disruption ...

and allergic reactions,” Dr. Marty Makary, the commissioner, said at a press conference. All companies that are members of the International Dairy Foods Association, including Sargento Foods and Turkey Hill Dairy, have signed the pledge, according to the association.

“I believe in love, and let’s start in a friendly way and see if we can do this without any statutory or regulatory changes, but we are exploring every tool in the toolbox to make sure this gets done very quickly,” Makary said. Some critics have said that officials should ban all the dyes, instead of relying on voluntary commitments..