--- title: The Hard Part of Removing Synthetic Food Dyes Begins on the Farm description: Research commissioned by the US candy industry finds synthetic colors sit in $57.8 billion of food and drink, and the alternatives cannot scale fast. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) updated: 2026-07-30T19:24:37.123Z canonical: https://richhealthmagazine.com/article/natural-food-colors-supply-chain-transition categories: Nutrition content_type: News region: United States publication: Rich Health Magazine schema_type: Article --- Taking Red 40 out of a candy is the easy part. Growing enough of what goes in instead is not. That is the finding of a report published this week by RTI International, an independent research institute, and commissioned and paid for by the National Confectioners Association, the trade body for the U.S. candy industry. The research, titled Recoloring the U.S. Food Industry's Future, looks at what would actually have to happen for American food manufacturers to move from synthetic colors to naturally sourced ones, and concludes that the constraint sits upstream, in farming and ingredient processing, rather than in the factories that mix the recipes. "This research makes clear that replacing synthetic food dyes is far more than a reformulation challenge, it's a supply chain transformation," said John Downs, president and chief executive of the National Confectioners Association. ## Synthetic Colors Sit in $57.8 Billion of American Groceries The scale of what is being unpicked is set out on the report's own page: products containing synthetic colorants account for $57.8 billion in U.S. food and beverage sales, about 7% of every dollar spent. Confectionery and beverages are among the categories most affected. By volume, the report puts synthetic dye use at double that of the natural alternatives. Use of natural colorants has grown steadily year on year, and plenty of brands already carry them. The report cautions that this visible presence on shelves is not the same thing as a supply chain ready to meet every product's requirements. What is driving the change, as the report describes it, is a combination of shifting consumer demand, intensifying regulatory scrutiny, states adopting their own policies on ambitious timelines, and clean-label expectations that have pushed many companies to reformulate or promise to. ## Each Natural Color Carries Its Own Supply Problem The report profiles the alternatives one by one, and the picture is not of a single substitute waiting to be dropped in. Carmine, the vibrant red, is made from the cochineal insect. Sourcing is highly concentrated in Peru, and prices swing with market conditions. It performs reliably for deep reds, but it must be declared on the label, and some shoppers who avoid insect-derived ingredients reject it outright. Curcumin, the saturated yellow from turmeric, comes overwhelmingly from India, where the supply chain is at least well established and understood. It is fat soluble and sensitive to heat, light, oxygen and acidity, and the report notes it is not feasible to produce in small batches. Phycocyanin, the cyan-to-sky-blue drawn from spirulina, needs special pond systems under precise environmental controls, which the report describes as carrying high production and energy costs. It is highly sensitive to heat and somewhat sensitive to light, acidity and oxygen, and depends on specialized, multi-stage extraction. Breeding better plants is the obvious long-term answer, and the obvious slow one. "Natural colorant breeding can improve economics, but timelines are very long," the report states. "Beet pigment improvement took decades. Scaling fast enough to replace synthetics is extremely difficult." ## A Faster Switch Would Mean More Imported Color The counterintuitive conclusion is about where the color would come from. Most of the report's accelerated-transition scenarios rely heavily on imports. Speeding the switch up does not summon domestic acreage into being; it pulls harder on a limited global supply. One stakeholder interviewed for the research put the arithmetic plainly: "If the U.S. industry all switched over to natural colorants, that increase in demand ... It's just not possible with today's land base or processing capacity. There's a lot of investment that would have to happen." An accelerated transition, the report says, could put high upward pressure on prices. ## The Testing Regime Changes as Well as the Ingredient Alongside supply, the report records a shift in how the colorants are checked. Another stakeholder told the researchers that synthetic colors "were probably one of the most tested products out there in the market, tested by FDA on a batch-to-batch basis. So, we are moving from a highly regulated space to a space that is subject to contaminants or adulteration in the supply chain, exposing manufacturers to potentially small farmers across the world, different intermediaries ... not fully traceable, not vertically integrated supply chains. These contribute to new risks that we are not aware of yet." The report is careful about what it is not. It states plainly that it is not an evaluation of the health or safety of any colorant, synthetic or natural. It examines feasibility: sourcing, scale, cost, appearance and shelf life. ## Shoppers Will Notice Some Products Looking Different For a shopper, the effects show up in ordinary ways. Removing a synthetic dye can alter shelf life, product performance, packaging, storage and shipping, and the manufacturing process itself. Some reformulated products need testing to establish how long they hold their color, and some need different packaging. Further along, the report recommends that distributors define handling profiles for temperature, humidity and light for the subset of products that turn out to be sensitive, and that they move stock on a first-expired, first-out basis where variable shelf life raises the risk of waste. Its advice to retailers runs to placement, promotions, lighting and staff training, so that shoppers who notice a familiar product looking different get an answer rather than a shrug. None of that is a legal requirement; it is what the researchers suggest the industry do. ## One Texas Candy Maker Started in 2019 Some companies did not wait. The report holds up Atkinson Candy Company, a small Texas manufacturer, which began moving its whole range off synthetic colorants in 2019, before any bills proposing bans appeared. The researchers present it as evidence that a portfolio-wide reformulation is workable even for long-established confectionery, given a manufacturer willing to commit to it across the board. The executive summary and full report are available on the association's [natural colors page](https://candyusa.com/policy-advocacy/natural-colors). ## FAQ **Q: Why are food companies removing synthetic food coloring?** The report points to consumer demand for cleaner labels, intensifying regulatory scrutiny, and individual states adopting their own policies with demanding timelines. Many manufacturers have reformulated or publicly promised to. **Q: What replaces synthetic dyes in food?** Naturally sourced colorants, among them carmine for red, drawn from the cochineal insect and sourced mainly in Peru; curcumin for yellow, from turmeric grown largely in India; and phycocyanin for blue, from spirulina. Each has its own sourcing constraints and its own sensitivity to heat, light and acidity. **Q: Will natural coloring change how food looks or how long it lasts?** It can. The report notes that reformulation may affect shelf life, product performance, packaging, storage and shipping, and it advises retailers to prepare for shoppers noticing changes in appearance. **Q: Did this research look at whether natural colors are healthier?** No. The report states explicitly that it is not an evaluation of the health or safety of colorants. Its subject is the feasibility of the supply chain.