If you’ve ever eaten the classic Nacho Cheese Doritos, you’re likely all too familiar with the orange fingertips you have to remember the experience.
That distinct neon orange hue is all thanks to the addition of artificial food dyes. Given that the FDA is moving to ban these types of dyes by the end of 2026, that means that the formulation for Doritos would need to change.
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These are the food dyes the FDA is encouraging food and beverage manufacturers to phase out by the end of 2026:
- Citrus Red 2
- Orange B
- Red 3
- Red 40
- Yellow 5
- Yellow 6
- Blue 1
Which of these are in Doritos? Let’s take a look.
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The dyes used in Doritos vary a bit based on the flavor. Doritos come in several flavors, but after a while, the food dyes overlap, so we won’t cover ALL of them.
Let’s check out the dyes used in the more popular flavors.
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Nacho Cheese flavor: Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 40
Cool Ranch flavor: Red 40, Blue 1, Yellow 5
Salsa Verde: Yellow 6, Red 40, Blue 1
Sweet and Tangy BBQ: Yellow 6, Red 40, Blue 2
Some of these dyes are the “lake” versions (like “Blue 2 Lake”), which simply means the water-soluble dye is combined with an insoluble substance so that it doesn’t dissolve in water. They still contain the regular food dyes, though, so they are treated similarly in terms of the ban.
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Frito-Lay has a product called Simply Doritos White Cheddar Nacho. This version doesn’t have any food dyes, and they look more like regular tortilla chips than regular Doritos do.
What makes the “Simple” version different from the regular? Well, it turns out, the ingredients list IS much simpler compared to the regular version. Let’s take a look…
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Regular Doritos ingredients: Corn, Vegetable Oil (Corn, Canola, and/or Sunflower Oil), Maltodextrin (made from Corn), Salt, Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Whey, Monosodium Glutamate, Buttermilk, Romano Cheese (Part-Skim Cow’s Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Whey Protein Concentrate, Onion Powder, Corn Flour, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Dextrose, Tomato Powder, Lactose, Spices, Artificial Color (Yellow 6, Yellow 5, and Red 40), Lactic Acid, Citric Acid, Sugar, Garlic Powder, Skim Milk, Red and Green Bell Pepper Powder, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate
Simple Doritos ingredients: Whole Corn, Corn, Sunflower Oil, Buttermilk, And Less Than 2% Of Salt, Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Onion Powder, Natural Flavors, Tomato Powder, Whey, Corn Maltodextrin, Yeast Extract, Sugar, Garlic Powder, Lactic Acid, Potassium Salt, Spices, Dried Red Bell Pepper, And Citric Acid.
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Doritos would look different without dyes, but the crazy thing is that they wouldn’t taste different.
Food dyes exist only for visual appeal. Take the dyes away, and you still have everything that makes Doritos taste the way they do.
There are several natural alternatives Doritos could contain in the future…
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Smartfood Popcorn already has a “Doritos Nacho Cheese” flavor without artificial dyes. The color sources used are:
- Paprika extract
- Vegetable juice
- Annatto extracts
This gives us a good idea of what dye-free Doritos could look like in the future. They still have the orange color, but it’s not as vivid and fluorescent-like.
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Some natural red color sources used already as an alternative to banend dyes include:
- Annatto (from the seeds of the annatto tree)
- Beet juice
- Saffron
- Hibiscus
- Paprika
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There aren’t quite as many natural alternatives for yellow dye. The interesting thing is that Doritos Golden Sriracha flavor already uses one of them!
- Turmeric (most popular and used in the Golden Sriracha Doritos)
- Safflower
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Blue dye in Doritos is a little surprising, isn’t it? These blue dyes are potential candidates to replace artificial dyes to satisfy the FDA’s ban:
- Spirulina Algae
- Red cabbage
- Butterfly pea flower extract
These natural blue dyes are probably a bit too blue for what Doritos wants to achieve in its Cool Ranch flavor, so it will be interesting to see what they might use. (In my opinion, Cool Ranch doesn’t need color since actual Ranch dressing is white!)
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Removing artificial dyes would mean the look of Doritos wouldn’t be what you’re used to. It’s hard to imagine just how different they would look, but that’s the job of the food formulation experts to figure out which color sources they’d want to use.
The good news is that the flavor, texture, and mouthfeel of Doritos shouldn’t change.
What would you think of dye-free Doritos? Does the color even matter to you? Add your opinions to the comments!!
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