Over 1,000 cereal-loving fanatics and health activists swarmed the Michigan headquarters of Kellogg’s Tuesday demanding the end of “harmful additives” being injected into US batches of the colorful breakfast staples Froot Loops and Apple Jacks.
Petitions of over 400,000 signatures were delivered to the company’s offices in Battle Creek calling for the breakfast food giant to remove artificial dyes and preservatives blamed for health defects and behavioral issues in some children.
Protesters held homemade signs as politicians, doctors, and nutritionists convened for the noon rally, according to WLNS.
Becca Mahon/Battle Creek Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
“I’m here for all the mothers who struggle to feed their kids healthy food without added chemicals,” food blogger and petition creator, Vani Hari said.
“It’s now 2024 and Kellogg’s still sells several cereals with artificial colors and flavors in America, all of which target young children,” the petition read. “Even worse, Kellogg’s continues launching NEW cereals for children filled with artificial ingredients, such as Minecraft Frosted Flakes and Disney’s Little Mermaid Cereal.
“These ingredients do not belong in our food — especially for children.”
WK Kellogg’s had vowed in 2015, that artificial colors and ingredients would be removed from its products by the end of 2018.
The dyes — Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1 and the chemical preservative BHT — have been added to the American versions of the cereals in the company’s “pursuit of short-term profits,” according to an explosive letter sent from a shareholder in March.
“Kellogg knows that these artificial additives can harm children,” investor and healthy foods company HumanCo founder Jason Karp alleged.
Becca Mahon/Battle Creek Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The artificial additives to the kid-marketed breakfasts are believed to harm some children.
“In addition to considerations of organ damage, cancer, birth defects, and allergic reactions, mixtures of dyes … cause hyperactivity and other behavioral problems in some children,” according to research from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
“Following the science, the EU required food companies to put a warning label on products with these ingredients, stating they ‘may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children,’” Karp wrote.
Red 40 and Yellow 5 — both of which are used to make Froot Loops in the US but not abroad — are entirely barred in the UK.
Japan also forbids the use of Red 40, and Canada bans the use of the BHT preservative, which is also an ingredient of the whole grain fruity cereal in the US.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the California School Food Safety Act into law, a first of its kind in the US that banned six dyes found in meals, drinks and snacks served in school cafeterias.
WK Kellogg argued that their products are safe and abide by federal regulations.