Chemical dyes made from crude oil are in a lot of our foods, especially those made for kids. They make our food brighter with colors that pop.
But a Georgia couple says studies show dyes can also make your children change for the worse.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
“He had lots of fits and hitting and biting and tantrums,” Whitney Cawood said.
Concern over behavioral changes led the Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr., to ask companies to cut out the dyes by the end of 2026.
And many are now promising to comply after decades of use -- the latest Hershey’s, which gave a statement to Bloomberg News.
Hershey’s makes products like Twizzlers and Jolly Ranchers. The company announced these and other products will go all natural by 2027, with no synthetic dyes.”
Other companies making similar pledges include Con-Agra, Tyson Foods, Kraft-Heinz, J.M. Smucker, cereal maker General Mills and Nestle, which says 90% of its products are already synthetic dye free.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Sophia Choi says without the dyes, you may notice a change in color, but not the taste.
Scientists say the dyes offer no nutritional value.
“They’re used to make food look visually appealing so that consumers want to buy them,” said Thomas Galligan of Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Brandon and Whitney Cawood already cut out chemical dyes from their son’s diet and made a documentary to warn others about the dangers.
“We did an elimination diet, and we determined that synthetic dyes were causing 98% of his issues,” Whitney Cawood said.
“It was kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Brandon Cawood said.
Channel 2 Action News reached out to Hershey Tuesday morning but haven’t heard back yet.
TRENDING STORIES:
- ‘I don’t believe a 3-year-old did this’: Mother of man killed believes someone else pulled trigger
- 2-year-old GA boy with one kidney stung over 150 times by wasps, family say
- Buckhead business owner says remote workers he trusted turned out to be North Koreans who stole $1M
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2025 Cox Media Group
