Remove 6 Color Additives ‘By the End of Next Year,’ FDA and HHS Rule

By the end of next year, you must have food colorants Blue 1 & 2, Green 3, Red 40 and Yellow 5 & 6 out of your food and beverage products. Why? Because even you admit it’s better than a patchwork of slightly different state laws.

That seemed to be the gist of a press conference this afternoon staged by the Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) and FDA. With Red 3 already banned, “This means we are removing all petroleum-based food colorants,” said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. While an explicit date was not mentioned, it sounded like Jan. 1, 2027.

Makary was among seven speakers, who included Robert Kennedy, secretary of HHS. With MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) Mothers as their backdrop on stage, they explained the quick banishment of the food additives that have been under scrutiny for decades and that a glacially slow FDA started to undo with the ban on Red 3 approved late last year.

Despite FDA approval, these color additives have been linked to hyperactivity, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, depression and even obesity in children.

“We’ve been living in a toxic soup,” said Makary. Despite past assumptions that the science against these additives was not conclusive or that it would be too difficult for the food & beverage industry to reformulate, “Why are we taking a gamble?” he asked.

Kennedy and Makary thanked the food industry for cooperation in meetings on this issue, implying processors preferred a single federal directive to a number of slightly different state regulations.

The final straws apparently are passed or pending laws in as many as 30 states that, while similar in many respects, especially about the six additives banned today, have enough differences to create a patchwork of slightly different regulations for nationwide food processors to adhere to.

And just like that, without lengthy debate, FDA investigations or Congressional hearings, six food additives are banned. Eight actually: Citrus Red 2 and Orange B apparently are in the stages of being approved, but FDA will revoke those authorizations in the coming months. Nine if you count Red 3, which the speakers asked the food industry to remove by the Jan. 1, 2027, deadline, which is just 15 days ahead of the original deadline set last year by FDA.

“You want red?” Makary asked. He held up watermelon juice, beet juice, carrot juice. One of the key points made by several of the speakers was that there are safe replacement colors and that even American-based global food companies have reformulated without these colorants to meet regulations in other parts of the world, primarily Europe.

“The transition will not increase food prices,” Makary added. “We’ve seen that in other countries.”

In a news release circulated just after the meeting, FDA said it’s authorizing four new natural color additives in the coming weeks – presumably calcium phosphate, Galdieria extract blue, gardenia blue and butterfly pea flower extract – while also accelerating the review and approval of others.

Food trade associations quickly followed with statements of acceptance. Consumer Brands Assn.’s was typical: “Consumer Brands has long asked HHS and FDA to reestablish themselves as the country's leading regulatory authority and we appreciate that the administration has reasserted their leadership in response to the myriad of state activity in the food regulation space. A state patchwork of differing laws creates confusion for consumers, limits access to everyday goods, deters innovation and increases costs at the grocery store.”