Why are my favorite drinks and snacks changing?

What's happening

A deadline, mostly voluntary

The FDA is asking food makers to remove six petroleum-based dyes by the end of 2027: Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2, and Green 3. Many big brands have set their own dates. Some products have already switched.

Red 40 and Yellow 5 are still legal in U.S. food. That end-of-2027 date is a target, not a ban. The headlines mix up four separate things:

What you'll notice on the shelf: colors that look a little different, and new names on ingredient lists. The FDA has approved several natural options companies can switch to, including beetroot red, butterfly pea flower extract, gardenia blue, and Galdieria extract blue.

State laws are changing fast, so check your state's current rules before relying on any one date.

The fundamentals

Color, and only color

Red 40 (Allura Red AC) and Yellow 5 (tartrazine) are synthetic color additives. The FDA calls them "certified" colors because each batch is tested before it can be sold. You'll find them in sports and energy drinks, sodas, candy, chips, cereal, frosting, and some medicines and supplements.

Their only job is appearance. They add no protein, vitamins, minerals, or fiber, so losing them costs your diet nothing.

Red 40 is not Red 3. They're different chemicals with different safety records.

Red 3 (erythrosine) is the one the FDA revoked in January 2025, after high doses caused cancer in male rats. The FDA says that rat-specific hormonal mechanism doesn't happen in humans. It acted because federal law (the Delaney Clause) bans any food color shown to cause cancer in animals, regardless of dose. That ruling doesn't apply to Red 40.

"Petroleum-based" describes where the starting chemicals come from, not how a dye acts in the body. The evidence below is what matters, not the origin story.

Human evidence

Why people are concerned

Most of the controlled research on dyes and behavior has been done in children, so that's where the clearest human evidence is. These are challenge studies: people get a drink or food with dyes on some days and a look-alike placebo on others, without knowing which is which. Researchers then compare attention and activity.

In 2021, California's environmental health agency (OEHHA) reviewed seven FDA-approved synthetic dyes. Its scientists published the findings in 2022 (Miller et al.):

• They found 25 challenge studies. 16 of them (64%) found some evidence that dyes affected behavior. In 13 (52%), the result was statistically significant, meaning it was unlikely to be chance.
• Responses vary. Some children reacted clearly and many didn't.
• Many trials used mixtures. That matches real life, since most people eat several dyes a day. But it makes it hard to say how much Red 40 or Yellow 5 alone contributed.

For adults, there's much less behavioral research, so the honest answer is that we don't know as much. One adult issue is well documented: Yellow 5 can cause allergic-type reactions, including asthma, in a small number of people. The FDA requires a warning about it on prescription drugs that contain it. It notes this sensitivity is uncommon but shows up more often in people who are sensitive to aspirin.

Poor overall diet doesn't explain the dye findings away. In a placebo-controlled challenge, the rest of the diet stays the same, and only the dye changes.

Gut research

The gut study: a real signal, still in mice

In December 2022, a McMaster University team published a Red 40 study in Nature Communications (Kwon et al.). Mice ate Red 40 in their food for 12 weeks. The researchers set the dose with the human acceptable daily intake (ADI) as their reference point. Then they triggered colitis (gut inflammation) with a chemical, a standard lab method.

The likely mechanism: Red 40 raised serotonin made in the gut lining. That weakened the gut barrier and shifted gut bacteria. Mice that couldn't make that gut serotonin were protected.

This isn't a study you can wave off as an absurd megadose. The design was careful, and the daily-versus-occasional difference is useful, especially for anyone drinking a dyed sports drink every day. It still can't tell us that typical human intake causes colitis or cancer:

• Mouse guts, microbes, and metabolism differ from ours.
• The colitis was triggered on purpose. The dye made the mice more susceptible to it; it didn't cause it alone.
• Groups were small, and cancer wasn't studied.
• The authors say plainly that whether Red 40 has similar effects in humans is unknown.

Think of it as a reason to run human studies, not a verdict.

Practical takeaways

What this means for you

1. Read the ingredient list. Look for "Red 40," "FD&C Red No. 40," "Allura Red," "Yellow 5," or "tartrazine." Check sports drinks, pre-workouts, and supplements too, not just candy.
2. Swap where it's easy. Dye-free versions of most drinks and snacks already exist, and more are coming. You don't need to clear out the pantry overnight.
3. Talk to a professional about concerns. If you suspect a reaction in yourself, or you're worried about a child's attention or behavior, bring it to a doctor or healthcare provider. Don't try to diagnose it at home, and don't assume dyes are the only possible cause.
4. Know what "under the ADI" does and doesn't mean. The ADI is the amount regulators consider safe to eat daily for life. The FDA set these limits between the 1960s and 1980s, before behavioral effects were studied. OEHHA concluded they may not protect susceptible children's behavior. Staying under the ADI is reassuring for most people, but it doesn't settle every question for sensitive people.
5. Don't let a "natural colors" label do your thinking. A sports drink colored with beet juice can carry just as much sugar as one colored with Red 40. A reformulated snack is still the same snack. Removing a dye changes one ingredient, not the food's nutrition.