FDA Takes New Approach to "No Artificial Colors" Claims

Agency also grants two petitions to expand alternative food color options

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took additional steps to support the transition of our nation’s food supply from the use of artificial petroleum-based colors to alternatives derived from natural sources. Companies will now have flexibility to claim products contain ‘no artificial colors’ when the products do not contain petroleum-based colors. In the past, companies were generally only able to make such claims when their products had no added color whatsoever — whether derived from natural sources or otherwise.

The agency sent a letter to industry providing notice of the FDA’s intent to exercise enforcement discretion related to these voluntary labeling claims.

“This is real progress,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “We are making it easier for companies to move away from petroleum-based synthetic colors and adopt safer, naturally derived alternatives. This momentum advances our broader effort to help Americans eat real food and Make America Healthy Again.”

Additionally, the agency today also approved beetroot red, a new color option, and approved the expanded use of spirulina extract, an existing color additive derived from a natural source. These actions were initiated by two petitions and will further help the industry transition from petroleum-based food colors. This brings the total number of new food color options approved under the current administration to six.

“We acknowledge that calling colors derived from natural sources ‘artificial’ might be confusing for consumers and a hindrance for companies to explore alternative food coloring options,” said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H. “We’re taking away that hindrance and making it easier for companies to use these colors in the foods our families eat every day.”

This work builds on previous HHS and FDA actions to encourage companies to phase out the use of petroleum-based colors in their food products. In April 2025, HHS and the FDA first announced a series of new measures to work with industry to phase out use of all petroleum-based synthetic colors from the nation’s food supply—a significant milestone in the administration’s broader initiative to Make America Healthy Again. Ongoing progress in removing petroleum-based colors from the food supply is being publicly tracked by the FDA at Tracking Food Industry Pledges to Remove Petroleum Based Food Dyes.

“We are working diligently to facilitate industry’s phase out of petroleum-based colors and speed up authorizations for colors that are derived from alternative sources,” said Kyle Diamantas, J.D., Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods. “The actions announced today give companies even more ways to transition to the use of alternative colors derived from natural sources.”

While the FDA encourages manufacturers to transition to alternative colors, including those derived from natural sources, the agency is also reminding manufacturers of their responsibility to ensure color additive safety. Therefore, the agency is issuing a letter that, among other things, highlights resources that may assist manufacturers of authorized color additives in maintaining high standards of safety and purity.