Many Americans support core parts of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda with regard to food safety, according to data from the Axios-Ipsos American Health Index released Friday.
Of those surveyed, 87% said they think the U.S. government should do more to make sure food is safe, including updating nutritional guidelines, adding labels to foods that contain artificial dyes, or decreasing exposure to pesticides, according to the poll. Meanwhile, 90% of respondents said that they think it should be easier for average Americans to understand food safety guidelines.
A majority — 56% — of Americans said they think that chemicals or unsafe additives in foods are a large or moderate risk to their health right now, according to the poll. Still, the survey found that just 41% said they believe the same about eating or drinking items that contain food dye.
Kennedy has been leading a massive push to revamp the U.S. food industry and make Americans healthier as part of the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda. As part of his broader MAHA agenda, Kennedy has been moving to crack down on the use of synthetic dyes in the nation’s food supply.
Some major food companies have recently pledged to remove chemical and artificial food dyes from their products.
Moreover, 67% of respondents said they do not think foods that contain pesticides or artificial food dyes in them are safe to eat, even if they have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to the poll.
The survey found that 38% of Americans said the U.S. government should remove all artificial dyes from foods, even if it makes food more expensive. Additionally, 22% of respondents said they support requiring the removal of some artificial dyes from foods if the cost and look of foods would remain mostly the same, while 20% said they think the government should allow artificial dyes in foods but require added labels so that consumers can make their own choices, according to the survey.
This Axios/Ipsos Poll was conducted June 13 to 16, by Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,104 general population adults age 18 or older.
The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults.
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