Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the FDA have been urging food makers to kick artificial colors to the curb by the end of 2027. Walmart plans to do so by that year's start. The retail giant on Wednesday announced it will remove all synthetic food dyes from its private-label products—including popular brands like Great Value, Marketside, and Bettergoods—by January 2027. That's a big deal, per NBC News, which notes Walmart's Great Value label is found in 90% of American homes. Walmart says the change is customer-driven, as demand for "cleaner" ingredient labels grows.
The shift means Walmart will have to test and reformulate more than 1,000 items, with the retailer saying it hopes to shield customers from any price increases as much as possible. Along with dyes, the company is also axing 30 other ingredients like some preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and fat substitutes. Customers can expect the same flavors and textures, but Walmart is warning that some foods, like their sports drinks and cereals, may look a little different—think less neon and more pastel. (NBC has some neat side-by-side product comparisons you can check out here.) Some dyes, like a vivid blue, just can't be replicated naturally. In those cases, the color will be left out entirely, and Walmart says it might use creative packaging to compensate.
The AP delves into the ingredients that have made Walmart's removal list and finds a few surprises: Some are already banned or were phased out of the US food supply years ago, among them the food dyes Red No. 4, Red No. 3 , Citrus Red No. 2, and Orange B, as well as the fat substitute simplesse and synthetic trans fatty acids. Brian Ronholm, director of food policy for the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, calls it a "well-thought-out list [that] represents a very positive step," though he expressed some surprise that Walmart is also targeting the additives toluene, anisole, and morpholine.
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Walmart said the additives that will go have "viable and scalable alternatives." For instance, its Great Value cheese dips will be made with paprika and annatto, a spice that comes from the seeds of the achiote tree, instead of Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6. Great Value Fruit Spins Cereal, meanwhile, will get its rainbow coloring from beta-carotene, annatto, blue-green spirulina, and juice concentrates.
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