Report From IFT FIRST Expo 2025: Debating MAHA, AI, FD&C and Other Acronyms

The current issues confronting product developers and ingredient suppliers – the Make America Healthy Again movement, the concurrent removal of synthetic colors from foods plus artificial intelligence – certainly were topics at the Institute of Food Technologists’ IFT FIRST meeting and expo July 13-16 in Chicago. But not overwhelmingly so.

For most of the exhibitors, it was business as usual – they touted improvements in nutrition, taste and texture – although some played to those hot topics. And, of course, a few had takes on currently trendy Dubai chocolate.

Probably every supplier of color additives has been promoting their natural replacements for years now. A few exhibitors mentioned the assistance of AI in developing ingredients. And Grain Processing Corp. tacitly addressed ultraprocessed foods with a banner that read “minimal processing meets maximum performance.”

While less evident among the exhibitors, those current issues were hotly debated in some of the technical sessions at the annual food ingredients show.

While applauding the Make America Healthy Again movement’s focus on chronic diseases and obesity, particularly among children, panelists at the “What the MAHA Agenda Could Mean for Your Business” session criticized its preoccupation with ultraprocessed foods and sometimes a lack of a solid scientific foundation for some of its initiatives.

MAHA is too focused on ingredients, such as petroleum-based color additives (FD&C colorants), and more recently seed oils, that are not proven to negatively impact health, said Martin Hahn, partner in the global regulatory group at law firm Hogan Lovells US. “And that is a huge mistake.”

“Removal of certified colors is not going to move the public health needle,” said Hahn, although he acknowledged food & beverage processors are falling in line on that issue. To a large extent, the MAHA agenda “is all about the sound bite.”

The other panelist, Maha Tahiri, CEO and founder of consultancy Nutrition Sustainability Strategies, criticized MAHA for not focusing more on issues, such as sodium, fat and added sugars, that have clearly been linked to health issues. And she was bothered by the differences between “what MAHA says and what MAHA does.”

Hahn, a food law expert, also was a panelist at “Food Additives: Reformulation and Regulatory Challenges,” where he said, “Colors are being eliminated not because of science but because of MAHA.” While federal rules used to be the sole concern of the food & beverage industry, “the federal system is no longer the one and done. Companies need also to look at state laws.”

New state laws in West Virginia, Texas and Louisiana, all signed just the weeks before the show, came up often during the sessions. West Virginia’s has the most urgency, with the seven food dyes – Blue 1 & 2, Green 3, Red 3 & 40 and Yellow 5 & 6 – being banned from use in school lunches with the start of this coming school year (starting Aug. 1). Texas’ and Louisiana’s laws, which ban or require the labeling of 44 and 50 ingredients, respectively, are the broadest but are two and three years in the future.

“The Texas courts will be working on this for years, because that is one of the most convoluted laws I’ve ever seen,” said David Schoneker of Black Diamond Regulatory Consulting, another panelist.

Nevertheless, “We have to get them out to be in compliance,” Hahn said. “We need to be aware of what has been banned and formulate products today so they’re compliant.”

U.S. Soy and probably all oil processors are “taking very seriously,” the current concern over seed oils, which have been spotlighted recently because of their high omega-6 fatty acid content and the processing methods used in their extraction. “But the science is not there,” said Dilip Nakhasi, food program manager at U.S. Soy and United Soybean Board. “Deeper research will prove their safety.”

Ingredient suppliers addressed some of the other current supply, pricing and health issues. Two weeks before the show Ardent Mills introduced Cocoa Replace, based entirely on wheat; and it also showed its two-year-old Egg Replace, primarily chickpea.

Ingredion’s Simplistica, a combination of maltodextrin and natural flavor, can replace 12% of cocoa and reduce sugar by 85%. Ajinomoto addressed sodium reduction with Salt Answer, two of its variations based on yeast extracts and two on potassium chloride, all rounded out by natural flavors and “proprietary umami and kokumi technologies.”