If you haven’t already heard all about the proposed food dye ban, I’ll catch you up to speed.
RFK Jr., appointed by President Trump to head the “Make America Healthy Again” campaign, announced the decision to move towards banning artificial dyes in foods and drinks by the end of 2026.
These dyes include:
- Citrus Red 2
- Orange B
- Red 3
- Red 40
- Yellow 5
- Yellow 6
- Blue 1
- Blue 2
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Think about all of the bright, colorful cereals that are especially marketed towards children. Froot Loops, Lucky Charms, Trix…they all get their colors from those banned artificial dyes.
That means that cereal companies have a lot of work to do to be compliant with the FDA’s proposed food dye ban.
Let’s look at three major cereal brands that have agreed to move towards nixing food dyes from their cereals.
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General Mills makes popular colorful cereals like Trix and Lucky Charms, as well as many others. According to a statement by General Mills, “85 percent of General Mills’ full U.S. retail portfolio is currently made without certified colors.”
However, General Mills is committed to several goals in the next couple of years…
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According to that same statement by General Mills, these are the goals regarding food dyes:
- Remove banned dyes from all its U.S. cereals and all K-12 school foods by summer 2026.
- Remove certified colors from its full U.S. retail portfolio by the end of 2027.
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Currently, General Mills uses dyes in some of its cereals. Here are some examples:
Lucky Charms: Yellow 5 & 6, Blue 1, Red 40
Trix: Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1
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PepsiCo makes the line of Quaker cereals as well as other popular snacks like Lay’s and Tostitos. Ramon Laguarta, the CEO of PepsiCo, said that the company has already begun to reduce the use of artificial ingredients in its products.
Quaker isn’t limited to just oatmeal, though – it also makes Life cereal.
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The good news is that Life cereal is already free of dyes! According to reviews from 2020, Life cereal used to contain artificial dyes, but it’s now colored with annatto, an approved color source.
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Kellogg’s (Kellogg Company) makes popular cereals like Froot Loops and Apple Jacks. According to Kellogg’s, 85% of its cereals are free of banned dyes. What did the company have to say in light of the food dye ban?
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Kellogg’s issued a statement saying, “We are committed to continue working with HHS and FDA to identify effective solutions to remove FD&C colors from foods.”
Its goals regarding food dyes are:
- Reformulating cereals served in schools to not include banned dyes by the 2026-27 school year
- Not launching any new products with banned food dyes beginning in January 2026
- Removing banned dyes from “the small percentage of our foods in retail that contain them today, by the end of 2027”
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Kellogg’s will have to find new color sources for some of its products. Here are some examples of banned dyes currently used in some of Kellogg’s cereals.
Froot Loops: Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1, Yellow 6
Apple Jacks: Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 40, Blue 1
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Fortunately, there are plenty of natural, FDA-approved color sources these major cereal brands can turn to.
For example, beet juice is a popular alternative to Red 40, and spirulina extract is a substitute for Blue 1. We’ll likely see these color sources in some of the reformulated cereals soon…
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There you have it. General Mills, PepsiCo, and Kellogg’s are committed to abiding by the FDA’s goal of nixing artificial food dyes from cereals in the next year or so.
What do you think of these companies’ commitment to abiding by the ban? And what do you think of the ban in general? Share your thoughts in the comment section!
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