The Dairy Processor List is a recurring Friday blog topic as we try to navigate the chaos taking place in Washington, DC. It will highlight the good, the bad and the ugly. Welcome to the third edition, which covers: IFT FIRST, what’s next in the anti-obesity movement, Texas’ ingredient ban, potential OBBBA implications to the food industry, labor shortages, tariffs and a summary of all the food-related action that took place by FDA during the first 100 days of the current administration. It’s finally here: IFT FIRST: Annual Event and Expo.
Welcome to my lovely home city of Chicago. I was born and raised on the northwest side, and now living closer to Wrigley Field. Go Cubs, Go! Bummer that they are away this weekend, as Chicago in the summer is the best. Welcome and enjoy!
This year’s IFT FIRST expo floor promises to be chaotic, in a good way. It’s my understanding that many ingredient suppliers scrambled this week to better address the madness that continues to come from the nation’s capital. The Lone Star State added to the insanity. Before we get into all of that, here’s what you can definitely expect at IFT FIRST.
Here’s the deal. Magic weight loss drugs have come a long way since the now-banned, over-the-counter diuretic pills from the ‘80s and ‘90s. (And yes, I was like the majority of teenage girls, a user!) While studies showed they suppressed appetite and sped up metabolism, the side effects, including stroke and heart attack, outweighed the benefits. Some believe that today’s anti-obesity medications (AOMs) are on the same trajectory.
These AOMs trick the body into feeling full by functioning similar to the satiety hormone known as glucagon-like peptide-1, or simply GLP-1. This hormone is naturally made by the small intestine and stimulates insulin production, which in turn lowers blood sugar levels. It also slows down stomach emptying and reduces the levels of hunger hormones.
ATTENDING IFT FIRST? VISIT INGREDION AT BOOTH S1129.
Here’s where things get exciting. As experienced firsthand at Vitafoods Europe this past May in Barcelona, GLP-1 is the talk of the food and beverage industry. This will take place in two very different conversations at IFT. The first will be about formulating nutrient-dense foods for those on GLP-1 drugs in order to prevent malnutrition. The other, which is still in its infancy, is about designing foods and beverages to naturally boost GLP-1 hormone production in the body.
To read more about the latter, link HERE to a recent Food Business News article I wrote titled “Can emerging food ingredients compete with GLP-1 medications?” This is a very exciting and emerging space. Since writing the article, I learned about a bar and beverage mix called Supergut. Dairy proteins are a key part of the formulation.
Lu Ann Williams, global insights director at Innova Market Insights, expects proteins, vitamins and fibers to be the talk of IFT FIRST as they are “nutrients that are easy to understand.”
She also said, “people are very interested in fortified foods again” and “differentiating proteins, as well as blending proteins, is starting to emerge.”
The rest of IFT FIRST will be a lot of conversations with formulators and suppliers scrambling. Because, in case you missed it, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 25 on June 22, 2025, requiring warning labels on foods containing 44 additives, including artificial food dyes, chemical preservatives, chemical baking aids and titanium dioxide. Yes, titanium dioxide is back in the clean-label conversation.
The law reads that any product containing any of the 44 additives must have a label stating: “WARNING: This product contains an ingredient that is not recommended for human consumption by the appropriate authority in Australia, Canada, the European Union, or the United Kingdom.”
The Washington Post reports that the regulation only applies to food labels “developed or copyrighted” on or after January 1, 2027. This means that companies would only have to include the warning on food labels they’ve redesigned or updated, or are new foods with new labels.
All 44 additives are now taboo and formulators have likely been directed to get them out of products. Companies that supply these ingredients are not in a good place.
While many dairy processors have already removed artificial colors (good job!), many may not realize that those baked good ingredients are an issue when it comes to many of the inclusions that go into ice cream, refrigerated desserts and even yogurt side cups.
Then there’s that One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA. It’s anything but beautiful. In fact, many parts of it are quite ugly.
On July 2, 2025, Sameed Khatana, MD, assistant professor of cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, along with Nicholas Illenberger, assistant professor with the Department of Population Health Grossman School of Medicine at New York University, wrote a research memo to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune estimating that the loss of SNAP would result in 93,000 premature deaths between now and 2039.
Simply, “cuts to food and health assistance will make more people hungrier and sicker,” according to Danielle Nierenberg, co-founder of Food Tank. “Parts of the food industry could feel a pinch.”
That’s because SNAP accounts for about 9% of grocery spending, so large corporations could see sales dip especially among packaged food products, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. You can read more HERE.
“Provisions in the OBBBA that target immigration will likely have disproportionate impacts within the food system,” wrote Nierenberg. “The Act more than triples the budget of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with a focus on ramping up detention and deportation of non-citizens. Plus, it revokes SNAP eligibility for some lawful immigrants and levies new taxes on sending money home to families abroad, both of which impact immigrants’ access to self-sufficiency through food and restaurateurship.”
This is also devastating for agriculture labor. In preparation for a tightening of the workforce, a new quarterly report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange recommends rural U.S. operations begin to increase their focus on technology to overcome labor availability challenges.
“Barring an unforeseen change in labor force participation rates or immigration policies, the pool of available workers is set to shrink precipitously in the next few years,” said Rob Fox, director of CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange. “The problem will be even more acute in states with lower population growth in the Upper Midwest, Corn Belt and the Central Plains. Increased adoption of technology—namely AI and robotics—will likely be at the core of any strategy to address the oncoming labor squeeze.”
In the past eight months, nearly 2.5 million working-aged people have dropped out of the workforce, the bank reported. And while CoBank said that farmers and ranchers walked away with significant wins from the OBBBA, farm bill program funding took a nearly $200 billion hit.
Then there’s those tariffs. According to a study commissioned by UserTesting and conducted by Talker Research on a total of 4,000 consumers, rising costs driven by tariffs are reshaping how global consumers live, shop and engage with brands. The survey took place between June 4 and June 12, 2025, and included a nationally representative sample of adults (18+) across the United States (n=2,000), Australia (n=1,000) and the United Kingdom (n=1,000).
Tariffs are no longer background noise, they’re triggering real lifestyle changes. Consumers across the globe are actively cutting back:
- 42% are buying fewer products overall
- 27% are switching to generic or store-brand alternatives
- 20% are traveling less
As economic uncertainty stretches on, brands are now navigating an increasingly emotionally charged marketplace, where trust, tone and transparency matter as much as price. Just because “climate-smart (federal) initiatives are either on hold, cancelled or reversed entirely,” according to Nierenberg, brands cannot put their sustainability and transparency initiatives on hold.
Consumers increasingly expect sustainability, animal welfare, regenerative and non-GMO claims to be verified by a trusted third-party, according to the 2023 Nielsen IQ Label Insight Report. This is something to ask for when talking with exhibitors at IFT FIRST.
To wrap things up, this press release landed in my inbox yesterday. It’s a statement from Marty Makary, who said that during his first 100 days as FDA Commissioner the agency “embraced gold-standard science, transparency and common sense.”
WASHINGTON, DC—JULY 10, 2025—As I mark my hundredth day on the job at the FDA, I’m proud to celebrate the agency’s accomplishments in the bipartisan effort to Make America Healthy Again. I came here with big questions: Why does it take ten years for a drug to reach patients? How can we fix America’s food supply so it is not filled with harmful chemicals and additives? Why are childhood chronic diseases so prevalent? We are taking bold action to address these big, obvious problems, and more, which have been staring at us for years.
The FDA regulates products that account for 20% of all U.S. consumer spending, and our work impacts the lives of every American. Over the past 100 days, we’ve launched dozens of key initiatives across the full range of the FDA’s purview to help make food healthier for children and families, accelerate meaningful cures and treatments, and modernize the agency with transparency, gold-standard science and common sense.
The food-related highlights include: “Food--Healthier Food for Children” and “Fixing America’s Food Supply.” Here are some specifics.
- Petroleum-based food dye removal: Took action to phase out petroleum-based synthetic food dyes from the U.S. food supply, which are linked to numerous health risks.
- Improving infant formula: Continued the work of Operation Stork Speed by hosting an expert roundtable on infant formula and exploring new ways to bring additional and healthier options without ingredients like seed oils, added sugars and heavy metals to market.
- Food chemical review: Initiated a robust, transparent review of chemicals currently in the food supply, such as BHT, BHA and ADA; and expedited the review of chemicals currently under review, such as phthalates, propylparaben and titanium dioxide.
- GRAS reform: Exploring rulemaking to require “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) submissions to FDA to stop industry’s long-standing practice of introducing ingredients into the food supply without FDA knowledge or oversight.
- Natural food dyes: Approved uses of three food colors derived from natural sources: Galdieria extract blue, butterfly pea flower extract and calcium phosphate, and initiated an accelerated the review of other natural alternatives.
- Began revising broken dietary guidelines: Launched the Nutrition Regulatory Science Program in partnership with NIH to better address highly relevant questions for Americans’ health, such as the impact of ultra-processed foods and the effect of certain food additives.
- Defining ultra-processed foods: Will launch FDA/USDA request for data and information to help develop a uniform definition of ultra-processed foods, and industry roundtable, paving the way for additional study and action.
Hope to see many of you at IFT FIRST!
