Mars Wrigley is offering some of its most popular products without artificial food dyes, making it the latest company to fall in line with the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
While a stream of leading corporations have acquiesced in recent months with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s Jr.’s MAHA movement, which seeks to incentivize the distribution of more natural versions of widely used foods and products to consumers, Mars, one of the country’s most prominent candy makers, has been viewed as one of the major holdouts despite having previously committed in 2016 to start removing all artificial colors from products.
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However, the company recently announced it would make products such as M&M’s, Skittles, Starburst, and Extra Gum available to customers nationwide without petroleum-based food dyes, which Kennedy considers to affect health outcomes negatively.
“Mars Wrigley North America has been on an innovation journey over the past few years, dedicated to bringing products that provide consumers delicious choices when they treat,” the company said in a press release reported by Bloomberg. “In the United States, we are engaged closely with regulators and aware of the increased dialogue and activity regarding colors. All our products meet the high standards and applicable regulations set by food safety authorities around the world, including the [Food and Drug Administration.]”
Mars’s July 24 announcement notably came just days after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton revealed an investigation into the company due to allegations it had violated consumers’ rights through deceptive trade practices by not fulfilling its 2016 promise to remove synthetic food dyes from U.S. products.
“It’s clear that the movement to remove artificial colorings from our food supply is making incredible progress, and it’s time for Mars to follow the lead of other companies like Nestlé and Hershey by removing synthetic dyes from its products,” Paxton said at the time. “For the health of Texans and all Americans, Mars must fulfill its 2016 pledge to get rid of these toxic ingredients.”
Paxton also issued Mars a civil investigative demand requiring the company to hand over certain documentation on its products, claiming that dyes used by Mars had been “linked to a number of negative health outcomes, including Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), autism, and even cancer.”
On its website, Mars notes the 2016 commitment but says its position on removing artificial coloring from products distributed domestically evolved after conducting research that appeared to show that U.S. consumers are less concerned about possible negative health effects associated with synthetic dyes than their European counterparts.
Both Skittles and M&M’s list several petroleum-based dyes on their ingredient labels, including common dyes such as Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1 Lake, and Blue 2 Lake.
THESE FOODS MAY LOOK DIFFERENT AS COMPANIES SWAP OUT ADDITIVES TARGETED BY MAHA
Kennedy, along with the FDA, has expressed deep concerns about the widespread use of petroleum-based coloring in popular candies and foods. The FDA in April launched a plan to incentivize the food industry to remove such ingredients from products after Kennedy put pressure on large corporations to do so voluntarily.
And many companies have chosen to acquiesce to the MAHA agenda. A host of ice cream manufacturers pledged to remove synthetic food dyes from products in July, following in the footsteps of giant corporations such as Hershey, Kraft Heinz, Nestlé, Smuckers, and Sam’s Club.