The CEO of the J.M. Smucker company has rejected the idea that Americans will stop indulging in snack foods despite campaigns to "make America healthy again" from the makers of Ozempic and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"As it relates to anything in the political domain, we believe very strongly that snacking continues," J.M. Smucker CEO Mark Smucker said on Tuesday. "Consumers are going to continue to look for a way to reward themselves at different times throughout the day."
Newly picked nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services RFK Jr. has long advocated against artificial food coloring and pesticides within food, reported CNN. Furthermore, he has been a proponent of decreasing soda and processed foods in school lunches given to children through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Kennedy, who "takes a much more hostile view of food companies than previous administrations," has frequently alleged the presence of "chemical poisons" in many snack foods and has been transparent about his goal of banning such foods.
"Potential policy changes could impact the (food) sector," warned Alexia Howard, an analyst at Bernstein.
Stocks of many giant food companies such as Pepsi, General Mills, Kellogg and Kraft Heinz fell when Kennedy was announced as President-elect Trump's pick to lead the DHHS.
However, the team behind the Smucker company has stated that they do not anticipate a change in demand for their products, despite Kennedy's nomination and the increasing growth of GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic.
"We continue to do an ongoing research on the impact of GLP-1 trends and what that might mean for our business," CEO Mark Smucker said. "We could look at reducing sugar. There's a whole variety of innovations that we will bring to bear."
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