The US food industry is accelerating its move away from artificial colours, but the transition to natural alternatives could bring significantly higher ingredient costs, supply shortages and lengthy product reformulation challenges.
Sales of products labelled with natural colours in the US increased 24.4% between 2024 and 2025, compared with growth of just 0.1% for products declaring artificial colours. The trend is encouraging major food companies to reformulate products as consumers and retailers increasingly look for cleaner ingredient labels.
The scale of the transition is substantial. Products containing certified FD&C colours generated around $57.8 billion in sales in 2025, representing 7.1% of US food and beverage sales. Beverages accounted for the largest share at 28.9%, followed by sweets at 22.4%, savoury snacks at 19.6% and baked goods at 17.9%.
Several major companies have already announced plans to reduce or eliminate artificial colours. General Mills has removed petroleum-derived colours from its US retail cereals, including Lucky Charms and Trix, and around 90% of its US retail portfolio has made the transition. Remaining categories, including fruit snacks and baked products, are expected to follow by the end of 2027.
PepsiCo has also introduced Simply NKD versions of Doritos and Cheetos without artificial colours. The products generated more than $3 million during their first month in the market. Kraft Heinz, Nestlé USA, Hershey, Conagra, Tyson Foods, Grupo Bimbo, Kellanova, Campbell’s and several other companies have announced similar commitments, generally targeting completion between 2026 and 2027.
However, replacing synthetic colours is not simply a matter of changing one ingredient for another.
A report prepared by RTI International for the National Confectioners Association found that natural pigments are generally less concentrated than synthetic colours. In some applications, manufacturers may need up to ten times more natural colouring material to achieve comparable colour intensity.
A complete transition could increase US demand for natural colours by an estimated 400% to 500%. Such a rapid increase could put considerable pressure on existing production capacity and ingredient prices.
Under one RTI scenario for 2028, average prices of non-FD&C colours could need to increase by 53% to encourage sufficient additional supply. More rapid demand growth could result in considerably larger increases.
Curcumin could face particularly strong pressure. This is significant for India because the country supplies around 86% of US curcumin imports and 74% of its imported lutein. The US also depends heavily on imports for several other natural colour ingredients, including annatto, butterfly-pea flower and saffron.
Apart from cost and availability, natural colours present technical challenges for food manufacturers. Heat, light, oxygen, acidity and moisture can affect their stability and appearance. Ingredients such as turmeric and spirulina can be particularly difficult to stabilise in certain food applications.
Reformulating an existing product can therefore become expensive and time-consuming. The estimated reformulation cost ranges from $50,000 to $500,000 per SKU. Shelf-life testing generally requires around 12 months and can extend to 24 months, while development of an entirely new colour system may take three to four years or longer.
Ingredient suppliers are responding by expanding capacity. Sensient Technologies, for example, is investing up to $250 million in natural-colour production.
Retailers are also pushing the transition. Walmart plans to remove certified colours along with more than 30 other ingredients from its private-label products by January 2027. Target has already completed the transition in its cereals, while the American Bakers Association has committed to removing FD&C colours from baked goods supplied to schools beginning with the 2026-27 academic year.
Innovation could provide additional solutions. Oterra and Debut are developing a precision-fermentation alternative to Red 40, with commercial-scale availability expected within three years.
The shift towards natural colours therefore represents a major opportunity for natural ingredient suppliers, including those in India. At the same time, food manufacturers will have to manage higher costs, limited raw-material availability, colour stability and longer reformulation timelines as the industry moves towards cleaner-label products.