Same cereal. Same sugary taste. Different hues.
A box of Froot Loops sold in the United States contains vivid rings of red, orange, green, purple, yellow and blue — neon colors derived from synthetic dyes, like Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5, Blue No. 1 and Yellow No. 6. In a box sold in Canada, the colored rings obtain paler shades from the juices of blueberries, watermelon and huito, an Amazonian fruit. And not a single one is blue.
The manufacturer in both countries, WK Kellogg, formerly known as the Kellogg Company, can clearly make Froot Loops without synthetic dyes. The question is: Will it and other big food companies adopt the approach in United States? And will consumers, raised on color-popping cereals, flame-colored nacho chips and neon blue sports drinks consume those foods if they are a bit more … beige?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, wants them to. On Tuesday, Mr. Kennedy, who has long criticized artificial dyes used in Froot Loops and other processed foods as part of a larger food system that he says contributes to chronic disease and poor health, announced that he had reached “an understanding” with major food manufacturers to remove commonly used petroleum-based food colorings from their products by 2026.
The meaning of “an understanding” remains unclear. No food companies attended the press conference, and few have said they will remove synthetic colors, which the Food and Drug Administration currently allows. But a shift may be coming. This week, citing expected demand from consumers, the beverage giant PepsiCo, which also makes Doritos and Lay’s potato chips, said it would either phase out synthetic colors or offer consumers natural color options in the next couple of years.
Mr. Kennedy is perhaps hoping that using his bully pulpit as head of the agency that oversees the F.D.A. will be enough to push big food companies to change their ways. They have responded to pressure before. About a decade ago, a number of companies tried shifting to natural colors. Most notably, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese successfully replicated its characteristic orange noodles by switching to turmeric and paprika. But other companies struggled. Some reverted to synthetic dyes after sales slumped.
For some critics of synthetic dyes, however, Mr. Kennedy’s announcement was a disappointment. Dr. Peter Lurie, a former F.D.A. official and the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the government should move more forcefully to eliminate the dyes.
“History tells us that relying on voluntary food industry compliance has all too often proven to be a fool’s errand,” Dr. Lurie said in a statement.
Rewriting the Recipe
No matter how much pressure Washington exerts, shifting to natural colors won’t happen overnight. It is not as easy as simply replacing Yellow No. 6 with carrot juice, said James Herrmann, director of food colors at Sensient Technologies, a company that manufactures colors — both artificial and natural — for the food and beverage industry.
It can take up to two years to develop the seeds, grow the plants and concoct the combination of, say, red cabbage and black carrot extract that produces a desired shade, he said. And it’s not just getting the color right. Food companies are likely to have to make adjustments to their manufacturing processes and facilities.
Light and heat are enemies of natural colors, causing them to fade, change or even, in some cases, separate, Mr. Herrmann said. Natural colors must be kept cool, and they have a relatively short shelf life, which means adding refrigeration and ensuring a steady supply of them, he said. He added that colors from carrot or beet juice and their synthetic cousins might have different viscosities, requiring factories to change pumps or the piping used to apply the colors.
Also, more natural dye is needed to achieve a satisfying color than synthetic dye, so recipes may have to be reformulated. “Your sugar or flour may be off,” Mr. Herrmann said.
And that’s assuming enough carrots, cabbage, beets and spirulina (an algae) are available to replicate the oranges, greens and blues of chips and sports drinks. Mr. Herrmann, whose company uses proprietary seeds for most of its colorings, said he wouldn’t “put the seed in the ground for the crop until we know there’s a customer there for it.”
“If everybody switches at once,” he added, “there is simply not enough material around the world available to meet the demand.”
Because it can take 10 times as much material from natural colors to mimic a small amount of synthetic dyes, costs could very likely climb as well.
Late Tuesday, the Consumer Brands Association, the trade organization for the food industry, said in a statement that the ingredients in the food supply “have been demonstrated to be safe” and “removing these safe ingredients does not change the consumer packaged goods industry’s commitment to providing safe, affordable and convenient product choices to consumers.”
Stacy Flathau, a co-chief corporate affairs officer at WK Kellogg, said in an emailed statement that 85 percent of its cereals contained no artificial colors, but that it was removing synthetic colors from those sold in schools. The company added that it was looking forward to working with the F.D.A. to identify ways to remove artificial colors from foods containing them.
Growing Colors From Scratch
Concerns about the safety of food colorings, especially regarding behavior in children, have been on the rise. A 2021 health assessment by the State of California suggested that “synthetic food dyes are associated with” behaviors “such as inattentiveness, hyperactivity and restlessness in sensitive children.” In Europe, food containing some dyes come with a warning label to that effect. Health Canada, which allows the use of food dyes but with strict restrictions on the amounts, notes on its website that it deems the evidence of those effects in children to be insufficient.
California banned artificial dyes in school meals in 2024, and just last month, West Virginia enacted a statewide ban, the most comprehensive in the country. More states are considering restrictions.
Sensient had been building its portfolio of natural colors, assuming that, by 2030, food companies will have moved away from synthetics. But the timeline could be speeding up.
Sensient develops its natural colors starting with the seed. It has developed a variety of beets, for instance, that are larger and more saturated in color, Mr. Herrmann said. The company provides those seeds to contract farmers around the world. After the produce is harvested, Sensient pulps, pulverizes and strains the purple sweet potatoes, red radishes and grapes into a rainbow of extracts, powders and liquids.
The process also eliminates the flavors of most of the underlying fruits, vegetables or other plants, but not all.
“You’re never going to take the taste out of strawberry juice. “It’s going to be a little acidic, a little strawberry-ish. And that works well for a strawberry flavor in a kids’ cereal,” said Linsey Herman, a vice president of research and development at Nature’s Path, which makes organic cereals and other foods. “But nobody is dying for a carrot-flavored cereal.”
Even though the color, whether natural or synthetic, doesn’t often change the taste profile of the frosted pastry or chip or soda, the appearance does signal certain flavors — or intensity of flavors — to consumers, said Charles Spence, a professor of food psychology at the University of Oxford.
“If you reduce the color saturation level of a drink, your mind may tell you it’s going to taste less sweet or less sour than the original color,” Mr. Spence said. “Duller hues may signal that this is a duller flavor or stale for some people, while for others it may signal that it’s a more natural color, something found more in nature.”
In recent years, Mr. Herrmann said, about 80 percent of new foods and beverages hitting the market were being made with natural colors. But food companies have dragged their feet on making the switch with popular existing products over fear that consumers may spurn them.
“They have to understand what their die-hard fans want,” he said, “and make sure the natural product reaches the synthetic shades as closely as possible.”
