"Would you eat a beet-flavored gummy? How about a hint of carrot in your soda?
Food manufacturers believe the answer to both questions is ‘no.’ As synthetic food dyes increasingly come under public and federal scrutiny over health concerns — in part bolstered by the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement — slightly altered flavors in some of Americans’ favorite snacks are just one of the concerns and challenges with switching to dyes made from radishes, cabbages, beets, carrots, butterfly pea flower extract, turmeric, paprika, hibiscus and other natural foods.
“One of the hurdles is simply: do consumers accept these?” said Michelle Frame, president and founder of Victus Ars, Inc., a food development and production lab focused on sweets and making supplements and pills more palatable.
Officials from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last month that they would work with food manufacturers to phase out synthetic food dyes made from petroleum. The federal effort comes as several states have already moved to ban or limit synthetic dyes in foods, particularly foods served in schools."
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