FDA relaxes labeling rules on 'no artificial colors' claims amid crackdown

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Thursday it will relax federal regulations regulating when companies may label products as free of artificial coloring.

The FDA said businesses can now label products as having "no artificial colors" if the coloring is natural or plant-based.

"Companies will now have flexibility to claim products contain 'no artificial colors' when the products do not contain petroleum-based colors," the FDA said. "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." 

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised the policy shift, saying it will ease the transition for companies while advancing efforts to make food safer.

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"This is real progress," RFK Jr. said in a statement. "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."

The agency also expanded its list of approved naturally-sourced food colorings, adding beetroot red and broadening the approved use of spirulina extract.

The new additions bring the total number of food color options approved under the current administration to six, the FDA said. 

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Health officials said the changes were made in recognition that coloring derived from natural sources should not be classified as artificial.

"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," FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in a statement. 

"We're taking away that hindrance and making it easier for companies to use these colors in the foods our families eat every day."

As part of the Trump administration's initiative to Make America Healthy Again, the HHS and the FDA in April 2025 began a series of actions to phase out all petroleum-based synthetic colors from the nation's food supply.

In January 2025, health officials banned red food dye known as Red 3, or erythrosine, citing potential cancer risks.

Food manufacturers were given until January 2027 to remove it from their products, while drug manufacturers will have until January 2028 to do the same.