More food companies plan to phase out harmful dyes. Here’s what has happened so far
Source: www.ewg.org By Zoe Kolenovsky (EWG)
Food dyes seem to be everywhere in snacks, drinks and many other grocery store items. But some dyes, particularly synthetic, petroleum-based ones, are linked to preventable health harms, from developmental disruption to increased risk of cancer.
Yet the U.S. continues to allow their use in food, even as other countries ban them. And the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t reviewed many dyes in decades.
And although some food companies have previously experimented with voluntarily removing dyes from their products, by and large they’ve stuck to using these artificial colors.
Dyes are officially known as Food, Drug and Cosmetic colors, or FD&C colors, and include Red Dye No. 3, Red Dye No. 40, Yellow Dye No. 5, Yellow Dye No. 6, Blue Dye No. 1, Blue Dye No. 2 and Green Dye No. 3. These dyes are ingredients in tens of thousands of products in EWG’s Food Scores database.
In the past few years, some states have begun passing legislation to ban synthetic dyes. More activity may now be on the horizon at the federal level, too.
As deadlines to comply with these bans loom, with more potentially on the way, the pressure is on for manufacturers to wind down the use of harmful food dyes in their products. This year, several major producers have already announced plans to remove dyes from certain items (see Table 1).
Table 1. Companies’ vows to remove food dyes
Although artificial dyes saw little regulation in the U.S. for decades, some manufacturers began phasing them out in the 2010s under market pressure from people concerned about the dyes’ potential health harms.
General Mills became the first in June 2015, pledging to remove all synthetic dyes from its cereals by 2017. At the time, the company said 85% of its entire U.S. profile was already free of artificial colors.
Just a few months later, Kellogg’s made a similar announcement. The company, known for popular cereals like Rice Krispies and Froot Loops, pledged to remove all artificial colors and flavors from its cereal and snack brands by 2018. At the time, it said 75% of the cereals it sold in North America were already free of artificial colors, and over half were free of artificial flavors.
Both companies’ promises fell short. They reverted to using synthetic colorants not long after, following pushback from consumers.
Kellogg’s faced consumer backlash last year for failing to meet its 2018 deadline. Texas’ attorney general is now investigating the company, claiming it may have violated consumer protection laws by marketing its products as healthy, despite the use of artificial dyes.
General Mills began selling cereals with artificial colors again in 2017, citing consumer complaints.
Mars, the company known for colorful candies like M&Ms and Skittles, similarly toyed with getting artificial dyes out of its products. The company pledged in 2016 to remove artificial colors from its portfolio by 2021. A few months later, it added titanium dioxide to that list.
But when 2021 rolled around, the company backtracked. Mars said it would “continue to prioritise our efforts to remove artificial colours in Europe” but not in the U.S., citing differences in consumer preferences. The Texas attorney general opened an investigation last month into the company’s initial pledge.
Earlier this summer, Mars said it had removed titanium dioxide from Skittles in 2024. But it has not commented on whether other products in its portfolio still contain titanium dioxide, nor has it recently said whether it will change its approach to artificial dyes.
First regulatory push
After decades of FDA inaction, states eventually took up the charge.
In 2023, the California Food Safety Act became the first law in the U.S. to ban four harmful chemicals from food sold and produced in the state, including Red 3. The following year, the California School Food Safety Act banned six synthetic dyes from food served in the state’s public schools. EWG cosponsored both bills.
Though the laws don’t take effect until 2027, they have kicked off a tide of legislative action in other states. According to EWG’s Food Bill Tracker, more than 15 such bills have been adopted across the country in 2025 alone, with nearly 70 introduced this year.
Delayed federal response
In the wake of a flurry of action at the state level, the federal government has indicated it will take a closer look at artificial food dyes this year.
In January, the FDA announced a nationwide ban on the use of Red 3. The move constituted the first major federal action against artificial dyes since they were last reviewed for safety, from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Although the agency banned Red 3 in cosmetics in the 1990s due to cancer risk, its use in food and drugs had long gone unrestricted. Now, manufacturers have until 2027 to reformulate their food products to eliminate the chemical and until 2028 to do the same for pharmaceutical products.
Then in April, the FDA and Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to phase out six other synthetic dyes from U.S. food by the end of 2026.
The move stops short of an outright ban, with government officials instead “working with industry” to voluntarily remove the dyes. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at the time that he had an “understanding” with manufacturers to do so, but not an “agreement.”