Kraft Heinz announced Tuesday that it will put an end to chemical dyes in all its products by 2027.
The brand famous for its condiments was among the major food companies that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met with in March. The meeting centered on reducing food additives in products — a pillar of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
“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,” Kraft Heinz North American President Pedro Navio said in a statement. “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.”
According to the company’s sales data, 90% of its products are already free of dyes.
Navio pointed out that its popular Heinz Ketchup has never had dyes in it and that the company opted to remove dyes from its Kraft Mac and Cheese, switching to turmeric and paprika for its orange color in 2016. Kraft Heinz is the parent company of brands like Oscar Mayer, Kool-Aid, and JELL-O.
The company committed to avoid dyes in all new products. This effort will require a new team to work on “removing colors where it is not critical to the consumer experience, replacing FD&C colors with natural colors, or reinventing new colors and shades where matching natural replacements are not available.”
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The Food and Drug Administration already banned Red Dye No. 3, which will take effect in 2027.
Tyson Foods, another company involved in the March meeting, eliminated its synthetic dyes last month. Meanwhile, the other companies which include PepsiCo, General Mills, Smucker’s, and Kellogg’s, have yet to make serious changes to their dyes.