General Mills follows Kraft Heinz in pulling artificial dyes from products

General Mills is the latest U.S. food giant pledging to remove FD&C artificial dyes from its portfolio of products within the next two years amid calls from the Trump administration to eliminate artificial colors from the nation’s food supply.

For its part, the Minnesota-based food giant said it plans to remove artificial colors from all its U.S. cereals and all K-12 school foods by the summer of 2026. It will simultaneously work to remove the colors from its full U.S. retail portfolio by the end of 2027.

The company said the change, however, will only impact a small portion of its General Mills’ K-12 school portfolio, given that most of its school offerings today are made without certified colors. Additionally, General Mills said 85% of its U.S. retail portfolio is currently made without color additives.

KRAFT HEINZ REMOVING ALL ARTIFICIAL DYES FROM US PRODUCTS BY END OF 2027

“Today, the vast majority of our foods are made without certified colors and we’re working to ensure that will soon apply to our full portfolio,” CEO Jeff Harmening said in a statement.

General Mills announced its plans the same day Kraft Heinz issued its own commitment to remove all artificial dyes from its U.S. portfolio by the end of 2027.

Both companies followed McCormick, which already told analysts during its earnings call in March that it has been working with restaurants and foodmakers to reformulate products to remove certain ingredients like food dyes.

The artifical dyes are commonly known as FD&C colors, and labeled as such on packages, because the color additive is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in food, drugs, and cosmetics and are subject to a strict system of approval under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act).

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been working to cut out the colors from the U.S. food supply since taking office, arguing that “some food producers have been feeding Americans petroleum-based chemicals without their knowledge or consent” for too long. He also claimed that these “poisonous compounds offer no nutritional benefit and pose real, measurable dangers to our children’s health and development.”

In April, Kennedy and the FDA announced a series of new measures to phase out all petroleum-based synthetic dyes from the nation’s food supply. Kennedy noted that this effort would need voluntary support from food manufacturers, but that the “industry has voluntarily agreed” to do so.

FDA BANS ARTIFICIAL RED DYE: WHAT THIS MEANS FOR CONSUMERS

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved seven certified color additives for use in food, six of which were approved by 1931. Now it’s seeking 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.

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The issue of color additives came into focus in January when the FDA revoked the authorization for the use of Red No. 3, also known as erythrosine, in food and ingested drugs over concerns that it has been shown to cause cancer in animals.

The FDA called for food and drug manufacturers to rid their products of the synthetic dye by 2027 and 2028, respectively. Foods imported to the U.S. must comply with U.S. requirements, the FDA said.