Fascinating look inside US mega factory making artificial food dyes as it races to ditch chemicals

Daily Mail​

30-04-2025

In a sprawling Milwaukee lab facility, lab workers are mixing beet root and carrot juice to obtain the right shades of blues and oranges to replace the technicolor artificial dyes in Americans' favorite snack foods.
People in head-to-toe suiting at Sensient Technologies Corp., one of the world's largest dye-makers, create powdered and liquid dyes out of natural ingredients and store them in a giant warehouse to be shipped out to businesses they contract with.
Dave Gebhardt, Sensient's senior technical director, said: 'Most of our customers [including companies that make candies, sodas, and frozen treats] have decided that this is finally the time when they're going to make that switch to a natural color.'
However, Sensient also fears that it, along with the broader food dye manufacturing industry, will struggle to meet the demand for natural dyes that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the wider Trump Administration are compelling food companies to use exclusively by 2026.
It takes up to two years to grow the plants used to make natural colors, including black carrot extract, beet juice, and red cabbage. Synthetic dyes like the controversial Red 40, meanwhile, are relatively easy to make in large quantities.
According to Sensient, there is no guarantee that a robust enough supply of carrots, cabbage, beets, and algae will be available to produce the bright hues of red, orange, blue, and green that Americans have become accustomed to eating.
James Herrmann, marketing director of food colors at Sensient Technologies, said: 'If everybody switches at once, there is simply not enough material around the world available to meet the demand.'
Major manufacturers, such as Sensient, will also need to alter their processing practices to scale up the development of natural products, a costly undertaking that may take longer than the timeline ordered by RFK Jr.
Abby Tampow, a researcher in the lab, is working over petri dishes of red dyes spanning different ruby hues, trying to match the synthetic shade used for years in raspberry vinaigrette dressing.
'With this red, it needs a little more orange,' she told the Associated Press, mixing in purplish black carrot juice and an orange-red tint made from algae.
Sensient is investing in the cultivation of new plant-based ingredients for dyes and broadening its sourcing network for crops from around the world, to maintain a stable supply regardless of climate issues or geopolitical disruptions.
However, adhering to the Trump Administration's new initiative will necessitate a significant scale-up in growing and producing the natural sources of the dyes, which Sensient leadership does not believe is currently feasible.
Paul Manning, the company's chief executive, said: 'It's not like there's 150 million pounds of beet juice sitting around waiting on the off chance the whole market may convert.
'Tens of millions of pounds of these products need to be grown, pulled out of the ground, extracted.'
Furthermore, small bugs called cochineal, which can create the bright Barbie pink used in candies, come from only a few sources, such as prickly pear cacti in Peru. Approximately 70,000 insects are required to produce just 2.2 pounds of dye.
Sensient sources raw materials from global farmers and producers. The ingredients typically arrive in bulk concentrates, which Sensient workers refine into liquids, granules, or powders.
Then, they are supplied to food manufacturers to be used in finished products.
Natural dyes are significantly more challenging to produce, store, and transport than their synthetic counterparts.
It can take around 10 times as much material to make natural colors to mimic just a small amount of artificial dye, which will likely drive up costs for producers.
Light and heat can cause colors to fade or change, or even separate. They are also likely to become chemically unstable with slight changes in acidity.
There are also specific colors, namely blue, that are particularly difficult to maintain during processing.
Manning said: 'How do you get that same vividness, that same performance, that same level of safety in that product as you would in a synthetic product?
'There's a lot of complexity associated with that.'
RFK Jr., flanked by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, announced last week that the agency will phase out the use of eight petroleum-based artificial food dyes – Red No. 3, Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, Blue No. 1, Blue No. 2, Citrus Red No. 2, and Orange B.
The new timeline follows a recent meeting in which he urged food industry executives to eliminate artificial dyes from products before the end of his term in 2028.
The FDA has not reached a formal agreement with the food industry to implement these goals, although it appears to have an understanding, and the agency has not presented a detailed plan for achieving them.
RFK Jr suggested more additives could be next, telling the crowd: 'We're going to get rid of the dyes and we're going to get rid of every ingredient and additive in food that we can legally address.
'And for those ingredients we can't ban legally, we're going to start informing Americans about what they're eating.'
Red 40 is among a group of dyes that contain benzidine, a known carcinogen for both humans and animals. While regulators permit trace amounts deemed 'safe,' concerns remain.
In 1985, the FDA estimated that exposure to free benzidine from these dyes could increase cancer risk to nearly 1 in 1 million people, just below the official threshold for concern.
Sensient's CEO Paul Manning emphasized the challenges of scaling natural dye production, noting that the industry can't rely on existing surplus crops like beet juice. Transitioning the market would require cultivating and processing tens of millions of pounds of raw materials
Studies have also linked Red 40 and similar dyes to hyperactivity in children, including those without ADHD. Research suggests that these additives may exacerbate symptoms or induce behavioral changes.
Additionally, Canadian scientists have found that Red 40 (also known as Allura Red) can disrupt gut function, impairing nutrient absorption and increasing the risk of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
They warn that prolonged exposure may weaken the body's defenses.
Blue 1, another common dye found in candies like gummy bears, has also been tied to hyperactivity and attention issues in kids.
Unlike the U.S., where the FDA often reacts to safety concerns after products hit the market, European regulators ban or require warning labels on many of these dyes, taking a more preventive approach to food safety.