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West Virginia has taken the lead on a big food safety issue. The state has passed a law that will ban the use of several artificial food dyes. That result points to two statewide trends - concern for public health and support for the Trump administration and its new health secretary. But some grocery shoppers worry that their choices will dwindle. West Virginia Public Media's Briana Heaney reports from Charleston.
BRIANA HEANEY, BYLINE: The law will ban several colorful dyes, like Red Dye No. 40, Yellow Dye No. 5 and Green Dye No. 3. Starting this August, they're banned in school food. In January of 2028, the ban extends to the state as a whole. In the legislature, the bill found overwhelming support on both sides of the aisle, but in the aisles of the Piggly Wiggly grocery store across town, it was a different story.
SUZANNE GILLISPIE: It's ridiculous. We live in America, and we should be able to eat what we want.
HEANEY: That's resident Suzanne Gillispie (ph). She'd heard about the law and worries about access to groceries. The state already is riddled with food deserts and closing grocery stores. Gillispie pointed to the juice aisle, where many products contain food dyes.
GILLISPIE: For, like, my granddaughter, juice - like, you're not going to let her have juice? Come on.
HEANEY: Some products will come off the shelves. Food and drink representatives who oppose the law said maybe 60% of items on sale now will have to be removed. Grocery shopper Patty Stahl (ph) worries about prices.
PATTY STAHL: I mean, I don't care if there's color in my food.
HEANEY: Yeah.
STAHL: I would hate to see more foods not be available because of that because we already have a problem. Going to the grocery store is very expensive.
HEANEY: But some studies reviewed and cited by California regulators in 2021 indicate that synthetic dyes could affect children's behavior and are associated with inattention and hyperactivity. California banned dyes in school food in 2024. Virginia just made a similar move, and around a dozen states are considering dye bans. West Virginia's outright ban in 2028 goes the furthest so far. And last month, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went to the state to praise its lawmakers.
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ROBERT F KENNEDY JR: All of them are getting calls every day from the big soda companies, the sugar soda and the fake food companies. We're not eating food. We're eating food-like substances.
HEANEY: West Virginia has some of the worst health metrics in the nation. It also voted overwhelmingly for Kennedy's boss, President Trump. Marybeth Beller is an associate professor of political science at West Virginia's Marshall University.
MARYBETH BELLER: I think this marriage brings together that RFK Jr. bandwagon - right? - with people who are more health-conscious and who are continually looking at the data and realizing that West Virginians, on the whole, are very, very unhealthy people.
HEANEY: Concern over food dyes isn't new. Scott Faber with the Environmental Working Group, which works on health and environmental advocacy, says scientists have been raising red flags about dyes for years.
SCOTT FABER: It's really exciting to see West Virginia become the state that has - now will have the safest food in the nation.
HEANEY: The food industry notes that the additives that West Virginia banned are approved as safe by the federal Food and Drug Administration and widely used around the world. Merideth Potter, senior vice president of the American Beverage Association, says her group will continue talking to the governor.
MERIDETH POTTER: If you do not want a beverage product that has that ingredient, that's the great thing about America, you don't have to choose it.
HEANEY: And that's how many Thursday night shoppers at Charleston's local Piggly Wiggly felt, including Suzanne Gillispie.
GILLISPIE: We've always been free. Why can't we be free now?
HEANEY: Supporters of the ban say that if other states would just join West Virginia, food producers will develop more natural food dyes and maintain the choices on the shelves. For NPR News, I'm Briana Heaney in Charleston, West Virginia. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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