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Activist investors are leading the call for WK Kellogg Co to keep up with previous promises to remove several food dyes from cereals such as Froot Loops and Apple Jacks.
Jason Karp, a WK Kellogg Co shareholder and founder and CEO of HumanCo, a holding company that invests in better food and beverage brands, led a protest Tuesday at the cereal company’s headquarters in Battle Creek, Michigan. Protesters demanded that Kellogg’s remove several dyes that can still be found on the cereal’s ingredient list.
The ingredients in question include Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1 and the preservative BHT, which is banned in several European countries and Canada due to health risks.
In 2015, Kellogg announced that it would eliminate artificial colors by 2018, but this was not implemented. The company reformulated the product without dye in other countries. Big food companies, including Mars, have backed off pledges to eliminate the ingredient after finding that consumers are reluctant to buy products with the previously vibrant colors that dyes ensure, industry experts told Food Dive in 2021.
In an emailed response to Food Dive, WK Kellogg Co said more than 85% of its cereal products do not contain artificial colors and that it is creating new cereals that do not contain artificial colors. The company says all ingredients it uses “comply with all applicable laws and regulations.” The company said it would review petitions filed against the dye. influential person Share Vani Hari, also known as Food Babe, with the FDA.
According to HumancoThis week’s protests drew more than a hundred people, including doctors and other activists. In a letter to WK Kellogg Co CEO earlier this year, Karp’s lawyers said Americans deserve to be sold safe versions of Kellogg’s cereals that the company sells in other countries.
“As more people realize the dangers of artificial food dyes, Kellogg’s has a responsibility to put people’s health first by eliminating neurotoxic chemicals found in American cereals,” Karp said in a statement to Food. Yes. diving. “This is about transparency and providing healthier choices, and we won’t stop until America’s children receive the safest versions of the products that Kellogg is already making.”
