Kraft Heinz announced on Tuesday that it will remove all FD&C artificial dyes from its U.S. portfolio by the end of 2027 amid pressure from the Trump administration to phase out artificial colors from the nation’s food supply.
Kraft, one of the largest food and drink manufacturers in North America, also said it would not launch any new products in the U.S. with artificial colors, effective immediately. Kraft Heinz said it is working with licensees of its brands to encourage them to remove artificial colors. They are also known as FD&C color additives because they are subject to a strict system of approval under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act).
“The vast majority of our products use natural or no colors, and we’ve been on a journey to reduce our use of FD&C colors across the remainder of our portfolio,” Pedro Navio, Kraft Heinz’s president of North America operations, said in a statement.
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Navio said the company’s well-known tomato ketchup has never included artificial dyes, noting that the red color comes from the tomatoes it is made with. The company did, however, remove artificial colors, preservatives and flavors from its Kraft Mac & Cheese in 2016.
Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has focused his efforts on cutting out the colors since being sworn into office earlier this year.
“For too long, some food producers have been feeding Americans petroleum-based chemicals without their knowledge or consent,” Kennedy said in a statement in April. “These poisonous compounds offer no nutritional benefit and pose real, measurable dangers to our children’s health and development.”
His comments came as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced plans to work with the industry to eliminate FD&C Green No. 3, FD&C Red No. 40, FD&C Yellow No. 5, FD&C Yellow No. 6, FD&C Blue No. 1 and FD&C Blue No. 2 from the food supply by the end of next year.
The FDA has approved seven certified color additives for use in food because they are also permitted for use in drugs and cosmetics. However, one of them, synthetic food dye Red No. 3, was already banned in food and drugs earlier this year.
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In January, the issue of color additives came into focus when the FDA said it was issuing an order to revoke the authorization for the use of Red No. 3 – also known as Erythrosine and gives certain foods and drinks a bright, cherry-red color – after it reviewed a petition filed that argues, under a rule called the Delaney Clause, the FDA should ban this color additive in foods and drugs on a federal level because it has been shown to cause cancer in animals.
The synthetic dye is already banned in the European Union. For over three decades, it has also been banned in cosmetics and topical drugs because of data demonstrating that it is associated with animal carcinogenicity.
As part of the FDA’s ruling, food manufacturers were required to eliminate FD&C Red No. 3 from their products by Jan. 15, 2027. Drug manufacturers will have until January 2028 to do so.
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Kraft Heinz said it used artificial colors in a “small number” of products given the “longstanding history of approval” by the FDA.
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