Two major CPG manufacturers – Kraft Heinz and General Mills – are taking up the baton extended by FDA earlier this year to remove artificial dyes from products sold in the US as part of HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s larger Make America Healthy Again platform.
The two packaged food and beverage giants announced yesterday that they will phase out FD&C artificial dyes in their products by the end of 2027, with General Mills prioritizing an earlier end date of summer 2026 for its cereals sold in K-12 schools.
The announcements come months after FDA and HHS declared their intention to phase out of the US food supply select synthetic dyes, including Red 40, Yellow 5 and 6, Blue 1 and 2 and Green 3 by the end of 2026 and to revoke authorization for little-used Citrus Red #2 and Orange B.
While FDA’s proclamation garnered significant attention, the agency has not taken official action to ban synthetic colors from the US food system – instead leadership is relying on an “understanding” with industry. Its unofficial approach to discouraging ongoing use of the dyes could be a potential work around of the Trump administration’s executive order that declared for any new regulation, 10 must be terminated.
Without teeth to force compliance, at least one industry insider hypothesized that while some large CPG companies with the means would replace artificial colors without natural alternatives, many mid-size and smaller companies would not.
Yesterday’s actions by Kraft Heinz and General Mills supports the first part of that hypothesis. They also respond to actions from a handful of states that have banned select synthetic dyes or plan to pending passage of legislation.
General Mills also faced pressure to remove petroleum-based dyes from consumer boycotts and an investigation opened by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last month into whether the company’s claims its brightly colored cereals, including Trix and Lucky Charms, are ‘healthy’ or a ‘good source’ of vitamins and minerals.
Kraft Heinz and General Mills expect minimal impact from removal of select dyes
Kraft Heinz and General Mills said phasing out artificial colors would only impact a small portion of their product portfolios as the majority of their offerings do not include certified colors.
“Today, the vast majority of our foods are made without certified colors and we are working to ensure that will soon apply to our full portfolio,” General Mills CEO and Chairman Jeff Harmening said in a statement.
“Across our long arc of history, General Mills has moved quickly to meet evolving consumer needs and reformulating our product portfolio to remove certified colors is yet another example,” he said, adding that currently 85% of the company’s US retail portfolio does not include certified colors.
Kraft Heinz, likewise, said nearly 90% of its US products are free from FD&C colors by net sales.
For the “small portion of products that currently contain FD&C colors,” including Crystal Light, Kool-Aid, Mio, Jell-O and Jet-Puffed, Kraft Heinz said that it has “invested significant resources, mobilizing a team to address this complex challenge with a three-pronged approach” that it dubbed the 3Rs.
These include: removing colors not critical to the consumer experience, replacing FD&C colors with natural alternatives or reinventing new colors and shades where matching natural replacements are not available.
The company’s commitment is not the first time it has pledged to remove artificial colors from select products in its portfolio even though, as it notes, FD&C colors “have a longstanding history of approval” by FDA.
In 2013, the company made headlines by declaring its intention to remove artificial colors, preservatives and flavors from a range of its iconic Kraft Mac & Cheese – an effort that was later expanded to the entire line starting in 2016.