Synthetic Food

Synthetic Food

 In January 1976, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned a popular and well-studied chemical used in food: Red 2. Food colorants have long been contentious, misunderstood and a target for chemistry researchers hunting for a breakthrough. 

Chemists first synthesized the molecule Red 2 in the late 1800s. They isolated the color from coal tar initially, then petroleum. Red 2 became the most popular dye in the food industry. Then, around 1970, the results of lab experiments seemed to challenge its safety. Public concern grew, and politicians urged the FDA to continue testing Red 2. Supporters of a ban claimed that the food colorant caused birth defects and cancer. Yet while further tests from FDA chemists proved inconclusive, the agency ordered food companies to stop using Red 2. As a result, the candymaker Mars paused making red M&Ms, although, ironically, red M&Ms did not contain the banned red dye—public anxiety had simply swelled so much that Mars wouldn’t risk losing business to any confusion.

As the U.S. government seeks additional bans on food colorants, both support and skepticism have again flooded in. In the final weeks of the Biden administration, the FDA moved to ban Red 3 from food and drugs. West Virginia has adopted the strictest ban on seven synthetic food dyes, and California has banned six.

Synthetic food dyes have just been better. Their colors tend to be more vibrant, and their chemical makeup tends to be more resilient against the (literal) pressures of food manufacturing: high temperatures, extrusion and pH changes. Natural dyes are more fragile in part because they are often extracted alongside sugar and other flavoring molecules that decompose under stress. This extra baggage also comes with an unwanted taste (unless a paprika-flavored sports drink sounds good to you). Natural food colors are often more expensive as well, and people tend to prefer buying brightly colored foods. 

However, public perception is that natural alternatives are considered safer. If the debate is a matter of health and death, then siding against synthetic food colors should be easy. But the truth is more complicated. 

“Natural” additives, such as annatto and saffron, can cause mild allergic reactions. Only a few synthetic colors have conclusive evidence of being toxic. Often, the dose required to cause harm is absurdly high. And while critics refer to synthetic food colors as “petroleum derived,” this label is misleading. “A 60 pound kid can eat 472 Skittles every day before hitting the [safe limit] for Red 40,” wrote immunologist Andrea Love in her newsletter ImmunoLogic. “A chemical behaves based on its identity, not its origin.”

The colorful dispute draws all sorts of criticism and support. Some candymakers want to keep using synthetic colorants; some consumer advocate groups fear the bans won’t be enforced. And research companies working on natural food colorants believe this is their moment.

Chemists can engineer natural dyes to with-stand heat and pH changes by enveloping them in polymers. They can also produce purer natural colors by tasking microscopic yeast to grow large batches in labs. This “fermentation-derived” color can also avoid unwanted veggie flavors. With-standing high pressures (like the force of pushing cereal through a shaping machine) is harder. But one company has invented a heat-stable blue gelatin powder based on extract from a Peruvian fruit called jagua. Jagua earned FDA approval in 2023.

In May 2025, the FDA approved three more natural colors as food additives: white calcium phosphate; a blue color from Galdieria algae; and butterfly pea flower extract, which can appear blue, purple, green or red, depending on acidity.

The red M&M remained discontinued until 1987. When it returned, Mars had switched to coloring it with Red 40—one of the synthetic dyes the FDA now wants to phase out. Which dye might be used next in the candy? Perhaps carmine, a food pigment made from crushed cochineal insects, which is already in use in European M&Ms.