Kraft Heinz to eliminate artificial dyes from US foods before end of 2027

Food giant Kraft Heinz will be removing FD&C artificial dyes from its consumer products by the end of 2026, and will not be launching any new products that contain the dyes.

In a press release, the food giant announced, "Today, The Kraft Heinz Company announced it will not launch any new products in the U.S. with Food, Drug & Cosmetic (FD&C) colors, effective immediately. The Company also announced it will remove the remaining FD&C colors from its U.S. product portfolio before the end of 2027."

The company said it would be using a "three-pronged approach" to remove the dyes that are in around 10 percent of its food products, including "removing colors where it is not critical to the consumer experience," "replacing FD&C colors with natural colors," and "reinventing new colors and shades where matching natural replacements are not available."

Pedro Navio, North America President at Kraft Heinz, said of the effort, “As a food company with a 150+ year heritage, we are continuously evolving our recipes, products, and portfolio to deliver superiority to consumers and customers."

“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. In fact, we removed artificial colors, preservatives, and flavors from our beloved Kraft Mac & Cheese back in 2016. Our iconic Heinz Tomato Ketchup has never had artificial dyes – the red color comes simply from the world’s best tomatoes. Above all, we are focused on providing nutritious, affordable, and great-tasting food for Americans and this is a privilege we don’t take lightly," Navio added.

Some of the foods that use the artificial dyes include Jell-O, Kool-Aid, as well as other products. It is not clear how the move will impact the business, and it comes as there has been pressure from the US Food and Drug Administration as well as the Department of Health and Human Services led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The dyes that will be eliminated from the foods include red dye 40, yellow dye 5, yellow dye 6, blue dye 1, blue dye 2 and green dye 2. In April, the FDA announced plans to phase out petroleum-based dyes from foods. Kennedy said at the time, "I was talking to my staff about these petroleum-based dyes, and I said if they want to eat petroleum, they ought to add it themselves at home. They shouldn't be feeding it to the rest of us."