W. Virginia scrambles to strip artificial dyes from school meals before classes start

When school starts in West Virginia next month, 240,000 students in districts large and small will notice something missing from their cafeteria trays.

Gone will be red Jell-O fruit cups, yogurt topped with brightly hued sprinkles and Cool Ranch Doritos — all foods made with synthetic dyes.

In their place will be foods that contain colors made only from natural sources — such as vegetables, spices and seeds — after West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed a sweeping new law in March banning seven artificial dyes from school meals.

Other states have enacted similar laws that would strip artificial dyes from school meals, but West Virginia’s action is the first to take effect, starting Aug. 1. It triggered a four-month sprint that that left state and local nutrition directors reeling.

“I think the initial reaction was like, ‘Wow, what are we going to do?’" said Tony Crago, director of child nutrition for the West Virginia Department of Education. “Where do we start?”

Across the state, managers of school food programs scoured district grocery lists for dozens of products that contained any trace of petroleum-based synthetic dyes including Red 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2 and Green 3.

“When it went into law, it was shocking,” said Diane Miller, who leads child nutrition and food services for Kanawha County Schools in the state’s central region. “We began to realize that these dyes were in much more than just your cereals.”

West Virginia's ban on synthetic dyes was cheered by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has successfully pressured food makers to agree to remove artificial colors from their products. The law focuses first on dyes in school foods, followed by a second action that will ban the colors plus two preservatives from all foods sold in the state starting in 2028.

The move is aimed at halting potential health effects from the dyes, which have been linked to neurobehavioral problems, such as hyperactivity and attention problems, in some children. It's part of a larger focus on limiting artificial ingredients in food, Morrisey said in March.

“By eliminating harmful chemicals from our food, we’re taking steps toward improving the health of our residents and protecting our children from significant long-term health and learning challenges,” he said.

Health advocates have long called for the removal of the dyes, citing mixed evidence of potential harm. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said the color additives are safe when “used properly,” in the amounts and products approved by the agency. Most children have no problems when consuming the dyes, the agency adds, “but some evidence suggests that certain children may be sensitive to them.”

More recently, however, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has joined Kennedy in the push to get artificial dyes out of food, despite limited proof of health effects.

“When you get rid of petroleum-based dyes, kids aren't gonna all suddenly be healthy,” Makary said on a recent podcast. “We're not going to address the fact that 30% of our nation's kids have prediabetes by simply removing petroleum-based food dyes. But these are steps in the right direction.”

Nutrition experts agree that removing artificial colors from foods doesn’t address the main drivers of America’s chronic health problems. Those stem largely from ingredients such as added sugars, sodium and saturated fat.

But dyes are “hallmarks of ultraprocessed food,” said Jerold Mande, a Harvard University nutrition expert and former federal food policy adviser. Targeting them could be a way of letting companies know “that the way they’re making food is unacceptable,” he said.

Some suppliers had already removed artificial dyes from some school foods, swapping them for products colored with beet juice or turmeric, said Hollie Best, food service director for Wood County Schools in Parkersburg, which has 11,000 children in 27 schools. Overall, Best said she removed just five foods from her menus.

General Mills said 98% of its products for schools were already made without the banned colors. The company “will be compliant” with West Virginia's law immediately and plans to remove the dyes from school foods nationwide by next summer, said Mollie Wulff, a company spokesperson.

In Miller’s district, with 23,000 students in 67 schools, the new law affects about 10% of the foods served, she estimated. She expected some foods to contain artificial colors, like strawberry milk and Pop-Tarts. Others were surprising, such as pickles, salad dressing and certain snack chips.

“People were like, ‘Oh my gosh, no more Doritos?'" Miller said. The popular Cool Ranch flavor contains dyes Red 40, Blue 1 and Yellow 5.

The challenge is finding substitutes that will still appeal to children, Miller said.

“Because the last thing we need them to do is to choose not to participate in our school lunch program,” she said, adding that schools provide many students their healthiest meals of the day.

Parents of children with sensitivities or allergies to artificial dyes had already raised concerns, according to school food directors. But for others, the presence of synthetic colors in school meals hasn’t been an issue. Chris DeRico, nutrition director of Barbour County Schools, with 2,000 students, said few parents seemed worried about dyes.

“They'd be in the minority, I believe," he said. “In rural West Virginia, I don’t think it’s really on radar screens.”

In Best's district, dyes were already out of the food dished up during the summer session in July. That didn't make much difference to Lilith Wilson, 9, who said her meal of a meatball sub sandwich, sweet potato fries and ice cream was “really good.”

Asked whether she likes school lunches in general, the incoming fourth-grader echoed the sentiments of picky kids everywhere: “Sometimes I don't, sometimes I do. It just depends on what it is.”

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