Gov. Greg Abbott, taking the path beaten by the White House, signed a bill that requires producers of heavily processed foods to change their recipes or print warning labels on packages for items containing any chemicals on a laundry list of synthetic dyes and additives. The 44-item list of ingredients includes red 40, but does not include aspartame or high-fructose corn syrup, an exception made after North Texas-based food industry giants, like Keurig-Dr Pepper and Frito-Lay, pushed back. The state is the first to introduce such a law.
The warning label was just one measure of a much larger bill dubbed the “Make Texas Healthy Again Act.” The new law also increases the minimum amount of exercise required in public elementary schools and requires nutrition courses as part of the mandatory curriculum for kindergarten through eighth grade.
The new law will apply to any food labels printed or copyrighted on or after Jan. 1, 2027, the same deadline the Food and Drug Administration, under the guidance of Kennedy, has given companies to completely remove red dye 3 from their recipes. Kennedy and the administration have earmarked several other petroleum-based synthetic dyes they would like to see large corporations “voluntarily” work out of their recipes by the turn of 2027.Make Texas HEALTHY Again!
— Governor Abbott Press Office (@GovAbbottPress) June 25, 2025
This commonsense policy was recently signed into law by Governor @GregAbbott_TX.
Texas promotes healthy living and brighter futures. https://t.co/KwZQzFlHss
"There's no need to have a regulation or a statute when companies are volunteering to do it," Marty Makary, commissioner of the FDA, said to ABC. "We are going to use every tool in the toolbox to make sure this gets done to the best of our abilities."
The bill signed by Abbott describes the list of warning-label items as “not recommended for human consumption” in other countries, a point that has been highlighted by the federal officials spearheading the national move. Makary, Kennedy and Abbott have all posed their respective MAHA moves as a step toward fighting a myriad of ailments.
“We have a new epidemic of childhood diabetes, obesity, depression and ADHD,” Makary said in a press release. “Given the growing concerns of doctors and parents about the potential role of petroleum-based food dyes, we should not be taking risks and do everything possible to safeguard the health of our children.”
What This Means For Your Favorite Foods
Catching hints, many food and beverage corporations have already announced plans to phase out artificial dyes from their products. Kraft Heinz, makers of the plastic-wrapped cheese singles and powdered cheddar, was one of the first to swear off dyes. Nestle, General Mills, Tyson and PepsiCo have all made the same promise, with most having the first day of 2027 circled in red on their calendars. These companies, many with billions of dollars of revenue, secret decades-old recipes and custom manufacturing equipment, are in store for large restructurings, says Misty Skolnick, co-owner of Uncle Jerry’s Pretzels. The company, maintaining an all-natural family recipe of sourdough starter, water, salt and flour, is looking forward to the social shift toward healthier products but is excited that its product quality will remain unchanged.
“When new regulations come up and it causes a major shift in the way a company does business, it can be very costly and very disruptive,” Skolnick said. “I think that's a lot of where the concern is coming from. Right now, the things that are coming out don't really affect us. … I don't envy those companies because they have so many products they have to think about.”
Skolnick said that smaller businesses, like her own, should take advantage of the next two years and hunker down on securing big-box retailer shelf space while large corporations navigate the impending changes.“I would be very surprised if big food companies really change a product." - Misty Skolnick, co-owner of Uncle Jerry’s Pretzels
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“As a small business, any change can be complicated, to put it mildly,” she said. “This allows us to focus on other parts of innovation, like different varieties or different markets that we can start engaging. While everyone else is jostling to switch out their products and the synthetic dyes, we can continue to focus on growing.”
The pretzel-maker says larger companies with thousands of products are hiring food engineers in droves to find alternatives and adjustments to preserve the taste of their products, so consumers aren’t likely to notice huge changes to their guilty pleasures.
“I would be very surprised if big food companies really change a product,” she said. “They might launch new products. They might discontinue certain products. But I would not think that they're going to dramatically change what they offer.”
The Politicization of Food
The laser focus on reforming the food market was not a part of Trump’s first term. The federal ban on red dye 3 was actually a move launched by the Biden administration and expedited by Kennedy. For years, former first lady Michelle Obama and her toned arms championed a national health campaign that significantly improved the nutritional value of food served in public schools.But at the end of his first presidential term, Trump rolled back parts of the program, allowing school districts more leeway on the amount of fruit and vegetables they offer, on Mrs. Obama’s birthday, no less.
This term, there has been significantly more emphasis on the septuagenarian’s health, especially after Joe Biden was driven out of the presidential race because of health and age concerns. When one cheeky reporter asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt if President Trump had put down the Big Macs and picked up the dumbbells in the Rose Garden with “Bobby Kennedy,” she verified that Trump is in “very good shape.”
Trump and Kennedy, problematic in their own rights and not commonly regarded as the pinnacles of physical health, have become the new faces of the healthy food movement within the political sector. Skolnick says that while she is excited to see the market become more regulated, she hopes the conversation surrounding health and wellness does not become partisan.
“It's a shame when any well-meaning message gets distorted by either side,” she said. “When that message somehow changes, it's hard. You want to see people getting consistent information and good information in order to make the best informed decisions.”
In nearly two decades, Skolnick has never seen food become such a political issue, but regardless, she is happy to see the changes she feels are necessary.
“I find it very interesting for food to all of a sudden become very political,” said Skolnick. “We try to stay apolitical because on either side, I think everyone wants to be healthy and in the best shape that they can, and no one wants to be ingesting things that are doing them harm.”
