By Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said during a hearing in the House of Representatives on Wednesday that new dietary guidelines developed with health secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will come in “hopefully early fall”.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are released every five years and include recommendations on what to eat for a healthy diet. They also shape federal nutrition programs.
The guidelines are drafted by committee members appointed by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services. Some nutrition experts have argued the committee members and resulting guidelines are overly influenced by food industry input.
Rollins said she and Kennedy are working on revising the draft dietary guidelines for 2025-2030 written by the administration of former President Joe Biden.
“I won’t say that we’re starting from scratch, because I think a lot of well-intentioned people did a lot of good work on that. But you’ll see by the end of this year, hopefully early fall, the new set of dietary guidelines coming out from our two agencies.”
Kennedy and Rollins have worked closely together during the first months of the Trump administration, including on nutrition and food policy issues. Rollins supported Kennedy’s April announcement that the U.S. will phase out certain food dyes.
The two secretaries have also asked states to submit waivers banning junk foods and soda from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the nation’s largest food aid program.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington, Editing by Franklin Paul and Hugh Lawson)
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