How the MAHA movement influenced the food and beverage industry in 2025

For some, MAHA has been defined by its efforts around medicines and vaccines, like the White House’s push to suggest there’s a link between acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, and autism, in spite of numerous studies showing no link between the two. For others, the MAHA movement has been defined by its efforts to improve America’s food supply and to remove artificial dyes and other synthetic additives from America’s packaged food and drinks. And on that front, there was a lot of progress in 2025.

When the FDA announced the decision to ban Red Dye No. 3 from food, a number of major CPG conglomerates, like Nestlé and PepsiCo, announced efforts to reformulate their products, including removing additives and synthetic coloring. Since then, the FDA has been working to ban other synthetic colors that include Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6 and Red No. 40 by the end of 2026. In turn, food and beverage manufacturers hit the ground running this year with plans to phase out a number of these ingredients.

In October, Walmart announced it is removing synthetic dyes from thousands of private label items, along with removing 30 other ingredients such as preservatives, artificial sweeteners and fat substitutes. Despite the curious timing with MAHA’s rise in popularity, Walmart maintains that the move had already been in the works for years.

These sweeping recipe changes show that big companies — from Kraft Heinz to Tyson Foods to General Mills — are increasingly willing to cater to preferences for cleaner ingredient labels. Industry observers say the push isn’t coming just from figureheads within the MAHA world; consumers are also pushing for these changes.

MAHA goes mainstream

Elly Truesdell is a partner at New Fare Partners, which invests in clean ingredient brands like Actual Veggies and Mid-Day Squares.

Truesdell said that 2025 was a big turning point for the MAHA agenda, as major food companies began making voluntary changes to their formulations. “This year, it felt like we saw a headline every other week about a new state that’s banning artificial dye or a large food company committing to reformulating their products,” she said.

Then came the cascading effect of some of the world’s biggest retailers, like Walmart, following suit in pledging to remove synthetic dyes and artificial ingredients from their private-label foods. “And for that reason, you couldn’t look away,” Truesdell said. “It was absolutely everywhere, in terms of social media and traditional media.”

Truesdell said that while people in the better-for-you “CPG bubble” have been pushing for these updates for years, the changes made by Big Food helped bring MAHA’s agenda into focus for the average American shopper. “So much of the country is not clear on what ‘real nutrition’ is because we get such conflicting messages,” she said. “Having some of the MAHA rhetoric be very simple has helped.”

With that, Truesdell said there is some oversimplification that has monopolized the MAHA conversation, such as the vilification of vaccines and seed oils. For example, groups like the American Heart Association have noted that there is no medical reason to avoid seed oils. But that hasn’t stopped MAHA from using social media to tout the potential harm of consuming canola, soybean and vegetable oils. Truesdell said these black-and-white takes are an example of how MAHA proponents can take things to extremes. 

That hasn’t stopped food brands from trying to appease anti-seed-oil cohorts. Earlier this year, several brands tested seed-oil-free products to gauge their traction among shoppers. 

And overall, the social consciousness became more aware of MAHA’s goals in the past year. 

Between December 2024 and October 2025, Storyful Intelligence analyzed 42,300 social media posts across X, Reddit and TikTok, among other platforms. The findings showed that anti-vax and Covid-19 denial posts made up just 3.4% of content, but grabbed 46.9% of engagement. 

However, discussions around Big Food remained the most critical and angry in tone, said Storyful Intelligence’s svp, Tara Naughton. Many of these posts were specifically critical of big companies’ historic use of allegedly harmful ingredients, Naughton said, such as artificial food coloring, additives and seed oils. The points of contention that received the highest number of likes and shares largely focused on cuts to SNAP benefits, which could be used on healthier foods, ingredient reform and safety regarding additives. 

Criticism was also pointed at perceived food monopolies, as well as the chemical makeup of fast food, which Naughton said racked up thousands of likes and shares.

But positive discussions are also emerging, said Naughton. There were welcoming social media reactions to product reformulations that potentially reduce harmful chemicals and dyes. One example is PepsiCo’s recent announcement that it’s removing artificial flavors and coloring from Lay’s and Cheetos in the U.S.

Naughton added that people have responded well to companies making sweeping announcements about their commitments to cleaner ingredient labels, including PepsiCo, Tyson Foods and Coca-Cola. Between June 2025 and October 2025 — after many brands announced reformulations — Storyful’s tracking showed criticism of Big Food dropped from 34% to 21.4% of total MAHA-related discussions. “Consumers want to see and hear about real changes to policy,” she said. “These brands are leading with their commitment to a better approach to food, which puts them in the best position to get credit and gain public support.” 

Wall Street also began to take MAHA’s impact on sales more seriously. In a report on how food and beverage leaders are addressing MAHA-related issues, Gravity Research released an analysis of over 50 earnings calls in the first half of 2025. The report found that 68% of Fortune 500 food and beverage companies addressed MAHA-related topics on calls with shareholders, including ingredient bans, vaccine skepticism and SNAP benefits changes.

Ingredients were the No. 1 topic, with 79 mentions during that period. Overall, MAHA-related questions made up 4-5% of analyst questions on earnings calls across food and beverage and pharmaceutical. That indicates that while the topic is on Wall Street’s radar, it is still not the dominating focus for investors. 

Food companies react in real time

Gravity Research president Luke Hartig told Modern Retail that companies aren’t solely reformulating products due to new regulatory pressure. The timing also coincides with retailers having established clearer ingredient standards in the last few years. “Procurement teams want fewer exemption lists, and consumers show a growing preference for shorter, more recognizable ingredient lists,” Hartig said. That combination means reformulation is increasingly a practical operations decision, but the process takes time as manufacturers validate colors, ensure shelf stability and manage costs.

As federal regulators’ deadlines to remove synthetic dyes and additives approach, Hartig expects more companies to formalize their plans for 2026. Since a large number of them have already completed reformulations of their most popular items, Hartig said, they are likely to continue updating the rest of their assortments over the next 12-18 months. 

“For most, the shift is less about making a major public commitment and more about ensuring supply chain continuity and meeting retailer expectations,” Hartig said. With that, additional brands are likely to join in phasing out these ingredients in the coming year. “The pattern will probably look similar to what we’ve seen so far: incremental, operational and largely integrated into existing product cycles.”

It’s still early days to assess the long-term impact on businesses that are overhauling their ingredients to match MAHA’s ethos. However, Truesdell said, the on-shelf sales and velocity of better-for-you brands show promise. And it’s not just among the Whole Foods shoppers or Erewhon fanatics.

“We have heard from several big box-retail buyers that they’ve already started to see [increasing sales of clean-label products] in the data,” she said. “The middle of the country has been woken up to nutrition issues, whether it’s through the conversation around GLP-1s or MAHA.”