RFK, Jr. Reams Dunkin' & Starbucks

U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has demanded that Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, and other food purveyors prove that their offerings are indeed safe to eat.  This is pursuant to his campaign to break GRAS, Generally Recognized As Safe, the common industry regulation and testing exemption in food safety law:

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5767389-healy-responds-kennedy-dunkin/

RFK Jr. puts Dunkin’ on notice; Massachusetts governor says ‘come and take it’
By Ryan Mancini - March 4, 2026

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said Dunkin’ and other companies will need to prove that their ingredients are safe, prompting Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) on Wednesday to reply back, “Come and take it.”

Kennedy, while at a rally at Brazos Hall last week in Austin, Texas, said, “We’re going to ask Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks, ‘Show us the safety data that show that it’s OK for a teenage girl to drink an iced coffee with 115 grams of sugar in it.'”

He added, as the audience applauded, “I don’t think they’re going to be able to do it.

“The reforms aim to ensure American foods follow the highest safety and nutritional standards globally,” MAHA Action, Kennedy’s nonprofit health advocacy group, said in a statement explaining Kennedy’s announcement.

Healey responded to Kennedy’s remark about the Canton, Mass.-based chain in a post on the social platform X. She shared an image of a flag resembling the 1835 “Come and Take It” flag first used at the start of the Texas Revolution.

Instead of a cannon, however, Healey’s flag replaces the cannon with a silhouetted Dunkin’ cup.

The Hill reached out to HHS and Dunkin’ for comment.

Kennedy has worked to overhaul the food ingredient approval system, aligning with what nutrition advocates have called for years. He said in Austin that this will be the “closure of the GRAS loophole,” referring to the Generally Recognized as Safe policy.

Kennedy criticized the GRAS exemption in a “60 Minutes” interview last month. He argued that the exemption allows food companies to independently verify the safety of food additives without the Food and Drug Administration’s oversight.

“That loophole was hijacked by the industry, and it was used to add thousands upon thousands of new ingredients into our food supply,” Kennedy told correspondent Bill Whitaker. “In Europe there’s only 400 legal ingredients. This agency does not know how many ingredients there are in American food.”

The National Association of Manufacturers pushed back on Kennedy’s claim, saying in a report released last Wednesday showing how the U.S. food and beverage supply chain produces “safe, abundant, accessible and nutritious” options for Americans.

They added that “policy trends threaten America’s safe and abundant food supply, global leadership in safe and nutritious food production and innovation across food technologies,” and that any changes could bring the risk of raising costs for both consumers and companies.