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You may have heard or seen General Mills' recent announcement that they will begin removing artificial food colors and flavors from their cereals. They are not the only food company to announce changes in their products. For example, in response to a massive petition signed by 364,000 consumers, Kraft is removing artificial food dyes-yellow #5 and yellow #6-from their macaroni and cheese products and will replace them with natural pigments such as paprika, annatto, and tumeric. To begin, they are removing dyes from mac and cheese products that target children to be followed by all their macaroni and cheese products.
Nestle has also announced that it is removing artificial flavors and colorings from all of its chocolate candies by the end of 2015. So the inside of a Butterfinger will no longer be dyed orange using artificial ingredients but will use annatto instead! Annatto is made from seeds of the achiote tree that grows in subtropic regions. (Although the vast majority of people tolerate annatto just fine, a few are allergic to it).
To keep up with Nestle, the chocolate giant Flershey has announced that it will reformulate its candies to use "simpler ingredients" that are easy to understand by customers. Exactly what that means is not clear!
Some restaurants are also changing the ingredients they use to be less synthetic and more "natural." Chick-fil-A announced that they will remove artificial food dyes and high fructose corn syrup from its food products. For example, their chicken soup will no longer use artificial yellow dye.
Panera will remove all artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners in its foods by 2016. Flowever, there is a catch: This does not apply to their beverages because they can't control what other manufacturers add to the beverages they sell.
So what are artificial food colors and why is there such concern from consumers? In the...