260. Calley Means & Kyle Diamantas: On MAHA, Food Dye Reform, GRAS Loopholes & US Food Crisis

Apr 9, 2026

Calley Means, HHS leader driving the Make America Healthy Again agenda to cut ultra-processed foods and reform procurement. Kyle Diamantas, FDA Head of Human Foods overseeing food safety, nutrition, and chemical review. They discuss MAHA wins like dye removals and SNAP changes. They explain GRAS loopholes, a new post-market chemical review, infant formula safety efforts, and why this is a long-term movement.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

How FDA Actually Manages Most Food Safety

FDA regulates about 80% of the U.S. food supply and splits its work into microbiological safety, nutrition, and food chemical safety pillars.
Microbiological work consumes ~55–60% of budget and staff, with 30,000 regulatory samples and 500+ recalls per year, revealing the hidden scale of food-safety operations.

INSIGHT

New Post Market Chemical Review At FDA

FDA historically lacked a systematic post-market review for chemicals and additives, typically acting only after petitions, outbreaks, or adverse events.
The administration stood up a new post-market office and framework to proactively reassess chemicals introduced decades ago.

ANECDOTE

Viral Post Helped Spur Hospital Food Reform

Calley Means described how her wife's viral post about hospital food (sugary drinks, Jell-O) sparked policy action to change hospital nutrition.
Within a year the administration moved to pressure hospitals to serve whole foods for diabetic patients.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app