U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gestures and speaks during an event in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on December 19, 2025 in Washington, DC, USA.
Evelyn HochsteinReuter
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday he supports a possible ban on junk food television advertising in the United States, an effort likely to draw fierce opposition from major food manufacturers.
In a hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Ranking Member Sen. Bernie Sanders (R-Vt.) said that Casey Means, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Surgeon General, recently told the panel that he supports banning junk food advertising on television.
When asked if he agreed with the ban, President Kennedy replied, “I do.”
But President Kennedy also seems to want the initiative to be voluntary for food companies.
“The only hesitation… was that when we tried to ban smoking on TV, the tobacco companies voluntarily agreed to negotiate, which was a good thing,” he said. “And I think the same argument applies to junk food, which is probably even worse for Americans than smoking.”
A 2017 study from the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health shows that in the United States, food, beverage and restaurant companies spend approximately $14 billion annually on food advertising, with more than 80% promoting fast food, sugary drinks, candy and unhealthy snacks. It’s not clear how trends have changed since then.
The Trump administration is already considering whether to limit the ability of food companies to sell certain unhealthy foods to children, according to the White House’s “Make America Healthy Again” strategy document released in September.
HHS, the Federal Trade Commission and other agencies will consider developing guidelines for the food industry regarding marketing to children, “including evaluating misleading language and images,” the document said.
Twenty years ago, the food industry launched the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative in an effort to only promote products that met specific nutritional parameters to children under 12. However, this effort is voluntary, and a study by the University of Illinois at Chicago shows that children will still see about 1,000 unhealthy food and drink TV commercials a year in 2024 and beyond.
Mr. Kennedy’s testimony before the HELP Committee is the last in a series of congressional hearings against him over the past two weeks on the fiscal year 2027 HHS budget proposal.
During his Senate confirmation hearing in February, Means said he would “absolutely lend his voice” to supporting a ban on television advertising of junk food to children.
— CNBC’s Amelia Lucas contributed to this report
