A vibrant new twist has arrived for your favorite confections.
In a groundbreaking move, the beloved candies M&M’s, Skittles, and Starburst will soon hit the shelves adorned in natural colors. These products—retaining their iconic allure—will be available on Amazon, offering customers the same price point as their artificially colored counterparts.
Mars Inc., the powerhouse behind these sweet treats, unveiled this change last year. The move reflects a broader shift in consumer demands, paired with the FDA’s 2025 directive to eliminate synthetic petroleum dyes from America’s food supply, due to potential health risks.
Historically, colorants like Red No. 4 and Yellow No. 5 have been staples in candy production. However, in recent years, research has increasingly associated these chemicals with hyperactivity in children and possible allergic reactions.
In response, Mars is embracing nature, using vibrant alternatives such as beet juice for red and turmeric for yellow, ensuring their candies maintain their eye-catching appeal.
Blends of turmeric, beet juice and the blue-green algae spirulina make up the green candies, including the famously flirty green M&M, while a mix of beta-carotene and carotenoids makes some candy pieces orange. As for purple Skittles, Mars is dyeing them with grape juice.
According to Claire Hewitt, Mars’ senior director of ingredient transformation, blue and brown have proven more challenging shades to produce au naturel because it’s harder for them to maintain color consistency.
“I think it’s the vibrancy,” said Hewitt in an interview with ABC’s Rebecca Jarvis on Good Morning America, which was broadcast from a lab kitchen in Hackettstown, New Jersey. “And I think the scale, we need to be consistent.”
The change comes as “wellness” becomes a national buzzword, and once-niche items like collagen supplements and organic beef tallow hit supermarket shelves and TikTok accounts at an unprecedented rate.
But Hewitt said that Mars was well ahead of the trend, spending over a decade on new research and testing, ingredient revisions and evolved manufacturing capabilities. She claims that Mars has sought the input of over 13,000 consumers in the last year alone.
When searching the Amazon link for the new candies, be sure to look for the “no FD&C colors” label to get your sugar high without the dye.