Synthetic dyes are on their way out of the American food supply — but on two very different tracks, and only one of them is a law. Here is what actually changed, what it means for the cart this week, and the swaps we use.
Our picks
The winners from our cheat sheet, each chosen for one job.
Candy and gummies
Colored with a named concentrate blend of carrot, blackcurrant, apple, pumpkin, radish, lemon and paprika (assorted-flavor bears); contains gelatin, so not vegetarian.
Ingredient panel checked · source
Red velvet cake and cupcakes
Red color for a cake mix from vegetable juice and turmeric on maltodextrin, five 13-gram packets, each enough for about a pound of mix. The panel does not name which vegetable.
Ingredient panel checked · source
Frozen desserts
Every flavor we read declares "fruit and vegetable juice (color)" as its only colorant.
Ingredient panel checked · source
Cookies
No FD&C color on the panel; the chocolate and molasses supply the color. The maker says it is free of the top nine allergens; we do not verify allergen status.
Ingredient panel checked · source
Read the ingredient panel, not the front of the box. FD&C Red No. 3 is leaving because the FDA revoked it — food and beverage makers have until January 15, 2027 to comply. The other six petroleum-based dyes (Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3) are leaving only as fast as individual brands choose to reformulate, because that phase-out is a request, not a rule. Until a product's label changes, assume the old formulation is still on the shelf.
August 2026 update — Red 3's compliance deadline for food and beverages — January 15, 2027 — is five months out. The voluntary phase-out of the other six dyes still carries no compliance deadline, so a product's ingredient panel is the only reliable signal of whether it's actually been reformulated yet.
This is the distinction that most coverage blurs, and it is the one that decides how much you can rely on a deadline.
Red 3 is revoked. On January 15, 2025 the FDA revoked the color additive authorization for FD&C Red No. 3 in food and ingested drugs. That is a binding order, not a request. Food and beverage makers must comply by January 15, 2027; makers of ingested drugs have until January 18, 2028.
The other six are a request. On April 22, 2025 HHS and the FDA announced they would work to phase out the remaining petroleum-based dyes — Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2 and Green 3 — and asked manufacturers to remove them voluntarily. The agency has not revoked authorization for any of them. There is no compliance deadline behind that target, because there is no rule. Reporting by Consumer Reports a year on found the six-dye timeline resting on an industry understanding rather than an enforceable regulation.
So: one dye is leaving because it must. Six are leaving to the extent that companies choose to follow through — and several large ones have said they will.
Until a product is actually reformulated, the only thing that tells you the truth is the ingredient panel. A front-of-box claim about "no artificial flavors" says nothing about color. Announcements have lead times measured in years, and the old formulation stays on shelves until it sells through.
Start with the concern explainers below if you want the background, or jump straight to the shopping lists when you are ready to fill the cart.
Dye is not only a food question, and in the craft aisle the disclosure gets thinner rather than better — with a child's hands in the product for an hour at a time. Our play dough showdown covers what Hasbro does and does not disclose about Play-Doh's color, and the brands that print their ingredient list on the tub.
We separate what regulators have actually required from what they have merely asked for, then read ingredient panels rather than front-of-box claims. Products earn a place here on their label, not their marketing.
Save & share
Red 3 is leaving because it's the law. The other six are leaving only as fast as a brand chooses to reformulate — the ingredient panel is what's true today, not the front of the box.
The science, briefly
FD&C Red No. 3 was revoked under the Delaney Clause, a federal rule that requires FDA to revoke authorization for any food additive shown to cause cancer in humans or animals — regardless of dose or whether the mechanism applies to people. The finding behind Red 3's revocation was tumors in male rats at high doses; FDA's own order notes that the way Red 3 causes cancer in rats does not occur in humans the same way. The law doesn't ask whether the human relevance is settled — it asks whether an animal study showed cancer, and that alone triggers revocation.
The other six dyes — Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2, and Green 3 — were not revoked under that clause. Their phase-out follows a different, older concern: several studies, including research out of the UK (the Southampton study) and a 2021 review by California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, found associations between synthetic dyes and hyperactivity in some children. That evidence base is less settled than a cancer finding under the Delaney Clause — which is part of why FDA asked industry to reformulate voluntarily rather than issuing a binding rule.
Both tracks point the same direction for a shopping list: skip the dye. Only one of them has a deadline attached.
Common mistakes
Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2 and Green 3 are also targeted for phase-out — just on the voluntary track, with no legal deadline. A product that still lists any of the seven hasn't necessarily reformulated yet, whichever dye it is.
Flavor and color are separate claims on a label. A product can genuinely have no artificial flavoring and still use a synthetic dye for color — the only way to know is to read the colors line on the ingredient panel specifically.
A brand can announce a change and still be selling the old formulation for years while existing inventory sells through, or reformulate one SKU without touching the rest of the line. Check the panel on the exact product in your cart, not the brand's press release.
Start here
Our shopping list of dye-free snacks.
See picksCrowd-pleasers with no synthetic color.
See picksGummy bears, sours, shelled chocolate and hard candy, by format.
See picksWhich dyes Betty Crocker's labels and one Wilton mix list, and the plant-colored sprinkles we would buy.
See picksThe drinks aisle carries the same dyes as candy.
See picksPlant-based color for baking and frosting.
See picksWhat we'd buy
Ingredient panel checked · source
Ingredient panel checked · source
Ingredient panel checked · source
Go deeper
Of roughly 10,000 chemicals allowed in food or in contact with food, more than 3,000 have never been substantively reviewed by the FDA. Under the self-affirmed or 'secret' GRAS pathway a company can conclude on its own that an ingredient is safe and begin using it without notifying the FDA, so the number of such determinations is unknowable.
— A Center for Science in the Public Interest report authored by Thomas Galligan, PhD found ...
How food companies sneak new ingredients past the FDA — Center for Science in the Public Interest
Pound for pound, children are breathing more air, eating more food, and drinking more water, so they have greater exposure.
— Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP of NYU Langone Health explains that ...
Toys, Shampoo, Makeup - Dr. Leonardo Trasande Is Exposing the Dangerous Chemicals in Everyday Products — NYU Langone Health
A flexible 9-day road map for safely introducing top allergens
— Malina Malkani, MS, RDN, CDN told BenBella Books (distributed by Simon & Schuster), ISBN 9781637745359 that ...
Safe and Simple Food Allergy Prevention: A Baby-Led Feeding Guide to Starting Solids and Introducing Top Allergens — BenBella Books (distributed by Simon & Schuster), ISBN 9781637745359 (2024-11-12)
