How the MAHA Food Movement is Reshaping F&B Strategy

The MAHA food movement has moved from political slogan to a line item on almost every reformulation roadmap in American food and beverage. What started in 2025 as a campaign against synthetic dyes has become one of the largest ingredient overhauls the packaged food industry has attempted in decades, and it now shapes menus as much as it shapes shelves.

So what does the MAHA trend actually mean in 2026? Two things at once. In January 2026 the Department of Health and Human Services published updated Dietary Guidelines under the Make America Healthy Again banner, raising the profile of protein and whole fats while pushing added sugar and ultra-processed foods down the list. At the same time the FDA’s phase-out of six petroleum-based dyes remains a voluntary request rather than a binding rule, and the agency’s own pledge tracker now points at the end of 2027 instead of the end of 2026.

That gap between political momentum and enforceable regulation is the strategic problem. You cannot plan around a rule that keeps moving, and everyone else has already stopped waiting. More than 30 states introduced food additive legislation in 2025, several major retailers set their own ingredient standards ahead of the federal timeline, and fast food chains have rebuilt their fryer programs around the MAHA diet narrative without any regulator asking them to.

For R&D leaders, marketers and category managers the question is no longer whether to reformulate. It is which changes consumers actually reward, which ones are theater, and how fast the rest of your category is moving. The sections below cover where the MAHA movement stands now, how CPG brands and fast food chains have responded, what it is doing inside commercial kitchens, and what the consumer signal underneath it looks like.

Make America Healthy Again: What’s the Plan?

Unveiled earlier this year, MAHA is Kennedy’s signature public health initiative designed to improve the American diet by reducing harmful ingredients in packaged foods and restaurant menus. Although not yet federal law, the program’s sweeping vision has already sparked industry-wide reform. MAHA calls for the elimination of synthetic dyes, petroleum-based additives, and inflammatory seed oils, reframing these once-common ingredients as public health concerns.

MAHA’s impact is already evident in school foodservice policies, FDA pressure, and mounting consumer advocacy. But it’s not just policy, it’s culture. Consumers are demanding transparency, simplicity, and health-forward innovation from brands of every size.

For more background, have a look at our deep dive into MAHA and how it’s set to affect the industry on a macro level.

Food industry reaction to MAHA: how CPG brands and fast food chains are adapting

The food industry reaction to MAHA has split into two tracks, and the difference between them matters more than any single reformulation announcement. One track is regulatory compliance, which is narrower and slower than the coverage suggests. The other is voluntary repositioning, which is moving much faster and carries most of the commercial risk.

Only one part of the dye agenda is actually binding. The FDA revoked the food authorization for Red No. 3 in January 2025, with a reformulation deadline of 15 January 2027. The six remaining petroleum-based dyes, Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2 and Green 3, sit under a voluntary request with no final rule behind it. The response from food companies to the Make America Healthy Again movement has therefore been driven less by federal enforcement than by state law, retailer standards and shopper pressure.

Retailers have moved ahead of regulators. Target set a standard in early 2026 requiring cereals stocked from the end of May to be free of certified synthetic colors, and both General Mills and WK Kellogg have committed to removing synthetic dyes from their cereal portfolios by the end of 2027. For a category manager that is the operative deadline, not the federal one.

On the MAHA fast food side the shift has been more visible and more commercial. Steak ’n Shake’s switch to beef tallow in early 2025 turned a sourcing decision into a marketing position, and chains including Sweetgreen and True Food Kitchen have since taken seed oils off their menus. Packaged brands followed. Conagra and Utz now both make products with tallow, and US sales of products containing beef tallow reached roughly $1.1 billion in the year to March 2026, up about 275% across three years on SPINS data.

The consumer signal supports the repositioning, but not evenly, and this is where brands are most likely to over-read the room. Across the Tastewise US panel, conversation carrying a clean-label claim has grown sharply in the past 12 months. No artificial flavors is up 73%, clean label up 64% and no artificial colors up 52%. Those are measures of how much people are talking, not of what they are buying.

Behavior is lagging the conversation. Innova Market Insights found that close to 7 in 10 US consumers say their seed oil use has not changed, and of those who did switch, most moved to olive oil rather than to tallow. The read for CPG teams is that the MAHA trend currently rewards visible, single-ingredient changes far more than it rewards a full portfolio rebuild, and that the cost curve is steep, since natural colorants can run several times the price of their synthetic equivalents and their supply is tied to crop yields. Deciding which changes to make is a product innovation question before it is a compliance one. 

How MAHA is changing Consumer Trends

MAHA is reshaping policy and corporate strategy. It is also reshaping the way people talk about food.

Over the past two years, conversation about food dyes has grown 50%. Media coverage explains part of that, but the bigger driver is that more people are joining in, with participation up 14% on last year. That points to a broader and growing concern, particularly among parents and health-conscious shoppers.

Seed oils are under similar scrutiny. Conversation about them has grown 29% in each of the past two years, spiking every January in line with New Year’s health goals. Nearly half of that conversation (43%) references health concerns directly. People are also looking for replacements. The words organic and anti-inflammatory appear in 19% and 16% of these conversations, which points to real demand for better alternatives.

One such alternative is olive oil. Its accessibility, perceived health benefits, and familiarity are making it a go-to replacement for seed oils in both home kitchens and reformulated foodservice menus. This momentum is consistent across online recipes, menus, and influencer content, placing olive oil at the center of the MAHA-era pantry shift.

This changing dialogue around ingredients is already shaping how brands respond. Here are how some of America’s top food and beverage companies have pivoted ahead of MAHA:

Steak ’n Shake: 100% beef tallow, no seed oils

• In January 2025, Steak ’n Shake announced it would switch from vegetable/seed oils to 100% beef tallow for frying its fries across all locations by February 2025.
• Rebranding at the brand level: Steak ’n Shake adopted MAGA-style slogans and imagery, most notably with “Make Frying Oil Tallow Again.” 
• The brand’s website confirms fries, onion rings, and chicken tenders are now cooked in 100% beef tallow.
• RFK Jr. publicly praised this move as part of the MAHA initiative.

PepsiCo: Phasing out artificial colors & flavors

• On July 17, 2025, Reuters reported PepsiCo will eliminate artificial colors and flavors from Lay’s and Tostitos by the end of 2025, replacing canola/soybean oils with avocado or olive oil.
• CEO Ramon Laguarta stated in Q1 earnings that over 60% of PepsiCo’s U.S. food portfolio is already free from artificial colors and that the transition is “well underway” .
• Additional confirmation came from Food & Drink International and Food Manifest, noting the strategy is accelerating in line with FDA dye regulation.

In‑N‑Out: Clearing confusion, removing artificial dyes & HFCS

• After a parody April Fool’s tweet was mistakenly cited by the White House, In‑N‑Out clarified it has not switched to beef tallow but is removing artificial flavors and synthetic dyes (Red 40, Yellow 5) in shakes and pink lemonade, and transitioning ketchup to real sugar.
• It’s also replacing high‑fructose corn syrup with cane sugar in ketchup and shakes.

Starbucks: Menu rebranding through a MAHA lens

• According to RFK Jr., Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol personally discussed aligning the café’s menu strategy with MAHA goals:
• Marketing narrative: Starbucks positions itself not just as “healthier,” but as an advocate for systemic food change, aligning publicly with a political-health initiative. That’s marketing message rather than product fix.

Skittles (Mars Wrigley): Titanium dioxide removed

• By the end of 2024, Mars phased out titanium dioxide from U.S. Skittles, a whitening agent scrutinized for health risks.
• Parade, Food & Wine, ConsumerAffairs, and India Today all reported the change, noting EU bans and DNA damage concerns highlighted by the MAHA commission.

Other brands: strategic reformulations underway.

• Tyson Foods, General Mills, Kraft‑Heinz, Conagra, JM Smucker, Hershey, Nestlé, Consumer Brands, and International Dairy Foods are listed by regulatory bodies and Texas AG investigations as preparing to phase out synthetic dyes in line with upcoming FDA rules.

These changes aren’t just for show, they reflect real ingredient shifts with definite timelines. From beef tallow fries and dye-free snacks to sugar swaps, the industry is responding in kind to MAHA-driven pressure and consumer demand.

How MAHA food service is adapting to clean-label demands

MAHA food service operators face a harder version of the reformulation problem than packaged brands do. A CPG team can requalify one product at a time. A commercial kitchen changes its fryer oil and discovers that every sauce, batter, bun and dressing built on that base has to change with it.

Frying oil is where most of the visible activity sits. Operators moving away from seed oils have gone to beef tallow, olive oil and avocado oil, and the supply chain has built around the switch. Solid tallow is awkward to store and handle at volume, so liquid tallow formats now exist specifically to make the conversion practical in a commercial kitchen.

The operator signal here is stronger than the retail one. Across the Tastewise US panel, the seed oil free claim skews restaurant-side rather than at-home, with roughly 6 in 10 of the posts carrying it tied to restaurant occasions rather than home cooking. Tallow now appears on about 14% of tracked menus in this space, and conversation around beef tallow is up 56% in the past year. Treat that growth figure as buzz momentum rather than as a measure of how many diners have changed what they order.

Beyond the fryer the real work is in sourcing. Removing synthetic dyes from house sauces, syrups and desserts means qualifying natural colorants that behave differently under heat and light and cost considerably more. Removing ultra-processed components means shorter ingredient decks and, usually, shorter shelf life and more prep labor. Operators supplying school accounts have a firmer deadline than most, since California’s rule on synthetic dyes in K-12 meals takes effect on 31 December 2027, which makes K-12 menu intelligence a planning requirement rather than a nice-to-have.

The honest caveat is that seed-oil-free is easy to claim and hard to deliver. A kitchen that converts its fryer but keeps buying seed-oil-based buns, mayonnaise and dressings has made a partial change that a well-informed guest can spot, and increasingly does. Operators who audit the whole supply chain before making the claim are protecting themselves from a credibility problem later.

From Insight to Action: Navigating Reformulation with Precision

The path forward is about timing, positioning, and consumer resonance.

Success hinges on identifying which changes truly matter to your audience, testing new formulations before launch, and ensuring messaging connects with current consumer values. Whether you’re reframing perception, fast-tracking innovation, or considering M&A to bypass lengthy R&D, the strategy must be informed, agile, and market-aware.

MAHA demands sharper, faster decisions at every level of product development and marketing. If you want to understand how you can effectively reformulate and remarket your products, view our webinar discussing the reformulation process in depth. 

Wesley Allan Tastewise