Major FDA Announcement Impacts Cheetos, Skittles, Mtn Dew, and More

Yahoo

23-04-2025

American food and beverage companies have long utilized petroleum-based synthetic dyes to give their products more vivid colors. But it sounds like those companies could be forced to make some changes in the coming months.
On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would begin phasing out the use of petroleum-based synthetic dyes in food products by the end of next year.
This will impact companies across the food and beverage industry as synthetic dyes like red dye 40 have been used in candy, cereal, chips, soft drinks and more over the years.
'For the last 50 years, American children have increasingly been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals,' FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said at a press conference on Tuesday, according to CNBC.
The FDA does not yet have a formal agreement in place for these changes and did not reveal how it plans to enforce the changes if food and beverage companies do not comply. However, Makary did not rule out the possibility of regulatory changes or a formal ban if this "understanding" does not work.
'There are a number of tools at our disposal,' Makary said. 'I believe in love, let's start in a friendly way and see if we can do this without any statutory or regulatory changes, but we are exploring every tool in the toolbox to make sure this gets done very quickly. And they want to do it — so why go down a complicated road with Congress?'
The process will include eliminating synthetic dyes from the market. Makary suggested that food and beverage companies should instead use natural coloring methods, like other parts of the world.
'For companies that are currently using petroleum based red dye, try watermelon juice or beet juice. For companies currently combining petroleum-based yellow chemical and red dyes together, try carrot juice,' he said.
Makary also announced that the FDA plans to authorize four additional color additives that use natural ingredients in the coming weeks, while also expediting the review and approval of other natural ingredient colors.
'The F in FDA stands for food,' he said. 'Now, there's no one ingredient that accounts for the child chronic disease epidemic. And let's be honest, taking petroleum-based food dyes out of the food supply is not a silver bullet that will instantly make America's children healthy, but it is one important step.'
Needless to say, it seems like many food and beverage products like Skittles, Flamin' Hot Cheetos, and Mountain Dew Baja Blast are likely going to look a bit different going forward.