By Zachary Stieber
Contributing Writer
Packaged food will look different in the future, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a new interview.
Health authorities envision unveiling a definition of ultra-processed foods by April, Kennedy said on Joe Rogan’s podcast in an interview released Friday. After that, they plan on turning attention to food labeling.
“Every food in your grocery store will have a label on it,” Kennedy told Rogan. “It’ll have, maybe, a green light, a red light, or a yellow light telling you whether or not it’s going to be good for you.”
The term ultra-processed food is generally understood to refer to food that has been altered through industrial processes and includes additives to make the product easier to prepare or enhance the taste.
The U.S. government lacks a uniform, authoritative definition of ultra-processed foods, prompting the Department of Health and Human Services and other health agencies to announce in mid-2025 that they would establish one.
An existing system for classifying food, developed by Brazilian researchers, does not accurately capture certain characteristics of ultra-processed food, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration said in a request for information for input that officials would consider when developing the new definition.
The document said a new definition “would allow for consistency in research and policy to pave the way for addressing health concerns associated with the consumption of” ultra-processed foods. It did not mention different colors on the packaging.
About 70% of packaged food in the United States is ultra-processed, government officials said, and a majority of the calories consumed by Americans come from ultra-processed foods, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, using the Brazilian-developed system.
Some studies have found that consumption of ultra-processed food is associated with health issues.
Kennedy said recently that officials would respond to a petition seeking to enable regulators to limit corn syrup and more than a dozen other refined carbohydrates, but that he was not saying the government would be regulating ultra-processed food.
Kennedy said in the new interview, “If you want to be healthy, we’re going to give you the information to take control of your own health.” He said that “most Americans want to be healthy, and we’ve seen that when they’re allowed to make a healthy choice, they do,” and that “they do not want to be eating this poison.”
Kennedy also addressed a recent order from President Donald Trump aimed at boosting domestic production of the pesticide ingredient glyphosate, telling Rogan that it was not something he was “particularly happy with,” but understood what the president was thinking when he issued it.
“If you banned glyphosate overnight, or if you got rid of it or if somebody else cut off our supply, it would destroy the American food system,” Kennedy said.
In a post Friday on X, he wrote, “I understand the president’s need to protect our farmers and our national security through his executive order on glyphosate. At the same time, President Trump has empowered me to advance research and innovation to find better alternatives that work for our ag producers.”
