New Commission Lays Out MAHA’s Priorities for Food and Health Policy

New Commission Lays Out MAHA's Priorities for Food and Health Policy

The Make America Healthy Again Commission has outlined initiatives likely to influence state actions on food dyes, SNAP benefits, ultraprocessed foods and more.

A 2025 executive order created the Department of Health and Human Services' Make America Healthy Again initiative, spearheaded by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It encompasses several key administration food policies within HHS, including removing petroleum-based food dyes; overhauling the "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS, standard; reworking dietary guidelines; and revising the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Together, these changes are intended to ensure federal policy addresses and promotes the priorities of MAHA.

MAHA Executive Order

Executive Order 14212, "Establishing the President's Make America Healthy Again Commission," announced on Feb. 13, 2025, outlines the initiative's key policies and actions, including:

• Establishing the Make America Healthy Again Commission.
• Directing federal funds toward health research.
• Working with American farmers to produce healthy and affordable food.
• Ensuring the "availability of expanded treatment options."
• Increasing flexibility in health insurance options.
• Fighting childhood chronic disease.

Establishing the Make America Healthy Again Commission

The MAHA commission aims to address childhood chronic disease through research into such potentially contributing factors as diet, absorption of toxic materials, medical treatments, lifestyle, environmental factors, government policies, food production techniques, radiation and corporate influence. By examining these drivers, the commission intends to develop strategies that prioritize prevention and long-term health. To date, the commission has released two reports:

• Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment
• Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy

Together, the reports serve as a foundation for the administration's health and food systems policy.

The Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy, released in September 2025, detailed four drivers it attributes to the rise of childhood chronic disease:

• Poor diet.
• Chemical exposure.
• Lack of physical activity and chronic stress.

The strategy proposes four main actions: advancing research, realigning initiatives, promoting public and private sector collaboration, and raising public awareness. It recommends policy changes targeting food ingredients and dietary guidelines, including:

• Altering the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (delayed).
• Prohibiting or limiting the use of petroleum-based food dyes.
• Post-market review of chemical additives in food.
• Defining ultraprocessed foods (delayed).
• Improving nutrition labeling.
• Reforming the quality of food provided through SNAP.

The strategy report has come under scrutiny following allegations that it contained false citations and used AI to generate content. Critics raised concerns about the credibility and integrity of the report's findings.

MAHA's Food Policies

Removing Petroleum-Based Food Dyes

HHS and the Food and Drug Administration in April announced an initiative to remove petroleum-based food dyes from American foods by the end of 2027. The dyes to be removed include:

• FD&C Red No. 3
• FD&C Green No. 3
• FD&C Red No. 40
• FD&C Yellow No. 5
• FD&C Yellow No. 6
• FD&C Blue No. 1
• FD&C Blue No. 2
• Orange B
• Citrus Red No. 2

States will likely need to realign their regulations to meet new federal standards as HHS and the FDA phase out common food dyes starting in 2027.

Many states are aware of and addressing this issue, as NCSL reported in the "State of Play" video "Should States Ban Food Dyes and Additives?" In 2025, 37 states introduced legislation on food dyes. Some states, including California, Delaware, Texas and West Virginia, have implemented legislation that changes labeling requirements or bans food dyes and other additives.

This policy initiative has also spread to the private sector. Several food companies, including Mars, PepsiCo, Sam's Club, Kraft Heinz and Walmart, have voluntarily pledged to stop using certain petroleum-based food dyes. However, other companies are opposing state legislation around food dyes and additives.

Overhauling the GRAS Standard

The "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS, rule, administered by the USDA, establishes a framework for identifying staple and accessory foods that meet the requirements for retailer participation in SNAP.

In March 2025, the acting FDA commissioner began exploring changes to the GRAS rule with the goal of strengthening the agency's oversight of ingredients classified as GRAS and improving transparency for consumers.

Updating the Dietary Guidelines

HHS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture released the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 in January. The guidelines, which are updated every five years, are used to direct certain federal feeding and procurement programs, such as the National School Lunch Program. The new guidelines include changes such as increasing recommended protein intakes; avoiding highly processed, though unspecified, foods; removing specific alcohol limits; and avoiding all added sugars. They also include a revised food pyramid. More information can be found in the Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and on the website realfood.gov.

Other Agency Actions Related to MAHA Food Policies

Revising SNAP

To align with MAHA initiatives, the USDA is revising SNAP to include restrictions on purchasing certain food items. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Rural Health Transformation Program, a source of rural hospital funding created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, is awarding additional funding to states that implement SNAP food restriction waivers.

The SNAP waivers, which limit the ability of program recipients to purchase nonnutritious items such as soda and candy, will take effect this year. To date, the USDA has approved waivers in 18 states (Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia).

In September 2025, the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service proposed a rule to establish a new framework for determining staple food varieties and accessory foods to meet requirements for retailer participation in SNAP. The rule aims to increase retailer compliance and ensure that SNAP-authorized stores offer a diverse range of healthy and nutritious food.

Working With American Farmers to Produce Healthy and Affordable Food

To engage farmers in food production, HHS and the USDA established public-private partnerships to support the Food Is Medicine project. The FIM initiative aims to integrate nutritious food into health care and communities to improve health outcomes and reduce chronic diseases related to food insecurity and diet. Additionally, the USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency are creating a partnership to assist farmers in adopting precision agriculture techniques, which include using GPS and other automation tools to manage water, fertilizer and feed.

The strategy also details several initiatives targeting American farmers. These include providing farmers with new tools to maintain and improve soil health, introducing a regenerative farming practice pilot program, streamlining organic certification processes, easing barriers to farm-to-school programs and direct-to-consumer sales, and accelerating EPA approvals for innovative agricultural products. The goal of these initiatives is to adjust food ingredients to better reflect a whole-food diet approach, which includes eating healthy, nutrient-dense foods in their most natural, unprocessed state.

Some of the strategy's priorities, including its scrutiny of the use of pesticides, have raised concern among the nation's agricultural producers regarding potentially negative impacts on their businesses.

Looking Ahead

The priorities outlined in the MAHA executive order have significantly shaped federal policy, which in turn has influenced state-level actions. In 2025, state lawmakers introduced more than 100 measures, many of them bipartisan, aligned with MAHA priorities. The seven enacted measures targeted food dyes, prohibited the use of SNAP benefits to purchase candy and soda, expanded nutrition education, and banned ultraprocessed food.

In 2026, states likely will continue to pursue measures such as expanding restrictions on additives, incentivizing healthy eating behaviors, and requiring stricter labeling on products.

Emily Ulizio is an intern and Megan Bland is an associate legislative director in NCSL's State-Federal Affairs Division.