Recent Investigations by the Texas Attorney General Piggyback on Federal ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Initiatives
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently announced that his office is investigating some of the country’s most ubiquitous home brands — including Colgate-Palmolive, Proctor & Gamble, and General Mills — for allegedly deceptively marketing products such as toothpaste and cereal to Texas consumers, particularly children. These investigations follow the federal government’s recent growing interest in these and other products as part of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiatives launched by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. On May 1, 2025, Attorney General Paxton announced that his office had sent civil investigative demands (CIDs) to Colgate-Palmolive and Proctor & Gamble for “marketing toothpaste products to parents and children in ways that are misleading, deceptive, and dangerous.” The attorney general claims that Colgate-Palmolive and Proctor & Gamble flavored their products and marketed them to “encourage kids to ingest fluoride t...