FDA eyes phaseout of petroleum-based food dyes

The US Food and Drug Administration plans to work with industry to remove petroleum-based food dyes from the US food supply by the end of next year. Specifically, the agency is targeting the most commonly used dyes: red no. 40, yellow no. 5, yellow no. 6, blue no. 1, blue no. 2, and green no. 3. The FDA is also asking companies to stop adding red no. 3 dye sooner than the 2027 deadline announced earlier this year under the previous administration.

The plan, which FDA Commissioner Marty Makary announced during an April 22 press conference, relies on food manufacturers voluntarily replacing synthetic dyes with those from naturally derived ingredients like beets and carrots. Makary is optimistic that industry will go along with the plan. Manufacturers “are eager to do this. They don’t want to deal with the patchwork of 30 different state plans,” he said at the press conference.

But some segments of the food industry may not be on board with eliminating artificial food coloring. Candymakers, in particular, have been fighting for years to stop state and federal bans on petroleum-based dyes, which they use to make products more attractive.

Consumer groups say the FDA’s plan lacks teeth. The agency did not issue any regulations to remove synthetic dyes from the food supply, Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, says in a statement. “We are told that the administration has an unspecified ‘understanding’ with some unspecified fraction of the food industry to eliminate dyes,” Lurie says. “But history tells us that relying on voluntary food industry compliance has all-too-often proven to be a fool’s errand.”

The FDA’s push to phase out petroleum-based food dyes comes on the heels of action by several states to remove harmful chemicals from food. Earlier this year, West Virginia became the first state to ban most synthetic food dyes, citing neurobehavioral health risks to children. More than two dozen other states are considering similar legislation.

“We passed the law in West Virginia because we thought our kids and our citizens deserve better,” West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey said at the FDA’s press conference. “They deserve real food, not chemical shortcuts designed to fool the eye but harm the body.”

But Morrisey and many others believe that a national discussion is needed. “We need consistent policies across the nation that clean up our food.”

US Department of Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made removing synthetic dyes and other harmful chemicals from the food supply a top priority. At the press conference, he thanked the West Virginia governor as well as the governors of Virginia, Arizona, and Utah for state laws that ban food dyes, saying the bans gave the agency leverage to make demands of the food industry.

The National Confectioners Association agrees that the FDA, not individual states, should take the lead on food safety regulations. The industry group claims that petroleum-based food dyes are safe. “We follow and will continue to follow regulatory guidance from the authorities in this space, because consumer safety is our chief responsibility and priority,” the group says in a statement.

In most cases, replacements are not immediately available, the candymakers group says. Getting FDA approval for new food color additives takes decades or longer and millions of dollars, the group claims.

In the coming weeks, the FDA plans to authorize four new color additives that use natural ingredients, Makary said at the press conference. The agency is also accelerating the review and approval of other natural ingredient colors, he noted.