Kraft Takes Food Dyes out of Some, But Not Most, Macaroni and Cheese
Statement of CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson
October 31, 2013
I'm very pleased that Kraft is removing Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 from three particularly kid-friendly varieties of macaroni and cheese. That should be big help for kids—and their families and classmates—because those synthetic dyes promote hyperactivity and other behavior problems in some children and may even pose a cancer risk.
Still, I'm puzzled as to why Kraft would not make this change for the variety that kids likely consume the most: the standard elbow-macaroni-shaped version. As Kraft has today shown, it is clearly possible to make macaroni and cheese without these harmful chemicals.
I still hope concerned parents sign Vani Hari's petition on Change.org calling on Kraft to nix artificial dyes in their macaroni and cheese products, as well as the petition we started with a New York mom urging Mars to stop using dyes in M&M's and other foods. As long as the Food and Drug Administration remains perched up in the bleachers and not on the playing field, action on the part of consumers is the only thing that will get these companies' attention.
