Nestlé CEO Laurent Freixe defended packaged foods on Thursday, just moments before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy has criticized packaged foods and ultra-processed foods (UPFs), calling the latter “poisonous” in several instances. Despite his harsh remarks, Kennedy said during his Jan. 29 appearance before the Senate Committee on Finance that he’s not looking to ban UPFs. But on Jan. 30, during an appearance before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Kennedy underscored the harms of UPFs. He told lawmakers that food producers have been allowed to “mass poison American children,” reiterating his previous claims that UPFs are “poison” and contributing to the nation’s “chronic disease epidemic.”
