By Alan Greenblatt for KFF
When considered one of Adam Burkhammer’s foster kids struggled with hyperactivity, the West Virginia legislator and his spouse determined to change their weight loss program and take away any meals that contained artificial dyes.
“We noticed a turnaround in his conduct, and our different kids,” stated Burkhammer, who has adopted or fostered 10 children together with his spouse. “There are actual impacts on actual children.”
The Republican turned his expertise into laws, sponsoring a invoice to ban seven dyes from meals bought within the state. It turned regulation in March, making West Virginia the primary state to institute such a ban from all meals merchandise.
The invoice was amongst a slew of state efforts to manage artificial dyes. In 2025, roughly 75 payments geared toward meals dyes have been launched in 37 states, based on the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures.
Chemical dyes and diet are simply a part of the broader “Make America Wholesome Once more” agenda. Promoted by Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., MAHA concepts have made their deepest inroads on the state stage, with robust help from Republicans — and in some locations, from Democrats. The $50 billion Rural Well being Transformation Program — created final yr as a part of the GOP’s One Huge Lovely Invoice Act to broaden well being care entry in rural areas — provides incentives to states that implement MAHA insurance policies.
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Federal and state officers are looking for a broad swath of well being coverage adjustments, together with rolling again routine vaccinations and increasing the usage of medicine resembling ivermectin for therapies past their permitted use. State lawmakers have launched dozens of payments focusing on vaccines, fluoridated water, and PFAS, a bunch of compounds referred to as “without end chemical compounds” which have been linked to most cancers and different well being issues.
Along with West Virginia, six different states have focused meals dyes with new legal guidelines or govt orders, requiring warning labels on meals with sure dyes or banning the sale of such merchandise in colleges. California has had a regulation regulating meals dyes since 2023.
Most artificial dyes used to paint meals have been round for many years. Some medical research have discovered a hyperlink between their use and hyperactivity in kids. And in early 2025, within the final days of President Joe Biden’s time period, the Meals and Drug Administration outlawed the usage of a dye referred to as Pink No. 3.
Main meals corporations together with Nestle, Hershey, and PepsiCo have gotten on board, pledging to get rid of at the least some shade components from meals merchandise over the following yr or two.
“We anticipate that the momentum we noticed in 2025 will proceed into 2026, with a specific give attention to ingredient security and transparency,” stated John Hewitt, the senior vp of state affairs for the Client Manufacturers Affiliation, a commerce group for meals producers.
This previous summer time, the group referred to as on its members to voluntarily get rid of federally licensed synthetic dyes from their merchandise by the top of 2027.
“The state legal guidelines are actually what’s motivating corporations to do away with dyes,” stated Jensen Jose, regulatory counsel for the Middle for Science within the Public Curiosity, a nonprofit well being advocacy group.
Andy Baker-White, the senior director of state well being coverage for the Affiliation of State and Territorial Well being Officers, stated the bipartisan help for payments focusing on meals dyes and ultraprocessed meals struck him as uncommon. A number of pink states have proposed laws modeled on California’s 2023 regulation, which bans 4 meals components.
“It’s not fairly often you see states like California and West Virginia on the forefront of a difficulty collectively,” Baker-White stated.
Though Democrats have joined Republicans in a few of these efforts, Kennedy continues to drive the agenda. He appeared with Texas officers when the state enacted a bundle of food-related legal guidelines, together with one which bars people who take part within the Supplemental Vitamin Help Program — SNAP, or meals stamps — from utilizing their advantages to purchase sweet or sugary drinks. In December, the U.S. Division of Agriculture permitted comparable waivers sought by six states. Eighteen states will block SNAP purchases of these gadgets in 2026.
There are sure to be extra. The Rural Well being Transformation Program additionally provides incentives to states that applied restrictions on SNAP.
“There are actual and concrete results the place the agricultural well being cash offers factors for adjustments in SNAP eligibility or the SNAP definitions,” Baker-White stated.
In October, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a invoice that units a authorized definition for ultraprocessed meals and can section them out of faculties. It’s a transfer which may be copied in different states in 2026, whereas additionally offering fodder for authorized battles. In December, San Francisco Metropolis Lawyer David Chiu sued main meals corporations, accusing them of promoting “dangerous and addictive” merchandise. The lawsuit names particular manufacturers — together with cereals, pizzas, sodas, and potato chips — linking them to critical well being issues.
Kennedy has additionally blamed ultraprocessed meals for power illnesses. However even proponents of the efforts to sort out diet issues don’t agree on which meals to focus on. MAHA adherents on the best haven’t centered on sugar and sodium as a lot as policymakers on the left. The events have additionally butted heads over some Republicans’ championing of uncooked milk, which may unfold dangerous germs, and the consumption of saturated fats, which contributes to coronary heart illness.
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Policymakers anticipate different flash factors. Strikes by the FDA and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention which are making vaccine entry tougher have led blue states to seek out methods to set their very own requirements aside from federal suggestions, with 15 Democratic governors saying a new public well being alliance in October. In the meantime, extra pink states could get rid of vaccine mandates for workers; Idaho made them unlawful. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing to get rid of faculty vaccine mandates.
At the same time as Kennedy advocates eliminating synthetic dyes, the Environmental Safety Company has loosened restrictions on chemical compounds and pesticides, main MAHA activists to flow into a web-based petition calling on President Donald Trump to fireside EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
Congress has but to behave on most MAHA proposals. However state lawmakers are poised to sort out a lot of them.
“If we’re sincere, the American individuals have misplaced religion in a few of our federal establishments, whether or not FDA or CDC,” stated Burkhammer, the West Virginia lawmaker. “We’re going to step up as states and do the best factor.”
