Kraft Heinz plans to remove all synthetic dyes in US products

00:00 Speaker A

Kraft Heinz, the maker of Kool-Aid and Jell-O, among other popular food brands as well, announced it’s removing artificial colors from its products by 2027. Yahoo Finance senior reporter Brooke DiPalma has the details. Brooke, what do we know?

00:18 Brooke DiPalma

This comes as RFK Jr. and the Trump administration have really been cracking down on major consumer product good, food brands, snack brands to really remove artificial flavors by the end of the administration. So Kraft Heinz making this big announcement this morning that it plans to get rid of all artificial flavors from the remaining 10% of its US portfolio by the end of 2027. Now they say that they will replace the uh artificial colors with natural colors and where they can’t do that, they will ultimately reinvent those products. They also announced that no new products effective today will use artificial dye and once again this does affect 10% of US products. They say that that is the 10% remaining of the US portfolio that still does use those artificial flavors. And so when you think about the products that are under the Kraft Heinz umbrella, it’s ones that come to mind here. It’s the Kool-Aid, it’s the Jell-O. It’s also those jet puffed marshmallows. Those also use artificial dyes, as well as Crystal Light. So of course over the next two years we’ll be keeping a closer look to see how exactly they quote-unquote reinvent these products or replace these colors and try to understand how exactly they make say blue dye and green dye and and invent it in new ways so that these products don’t necessarily taste different. So there’s no consumer pushback. But what we do know is that Kraft Heinz, General Mills, WK Kellogg, those are all stocks that have been under pressure so far this year, not only because of the announcement of RFK Jr. cracking down on artificial dyes, but also as consumers get a bit picky about how exactly they’re spending their discretionary dollars and whether or not they’re going towards snacks here. So lots to watch in this space, but this announcement coming out this morning from Kraft Heinz.

02:59 Speaker A

Okay. So

03:01 Brooke DiPalma

Let’s break this down.

03:04 Speaker A

Yeah, let’s let’s dive a little further into this because I feel like I’m already personally invested and impacted considering my consumption of many of these products over the course of my life. But as we’re thinking about how executives are positioning their companies to change operations, does it seem like any of them are ahead of the curve on that effort?

03:31 Brooke DiPalma

Yeah, I mean, they say that they’ve been doing this over the past few years. Back in 2016 they removed artificial dyes from the craft mac and cheese. And so they they seem like they’re well positioned to make these changes. Of course yet to be seen how much exactly this reinvention will cost here.

04:01 Speaker A

All right. Brooke, I’m going to be watching closely next time I make some Kool-Aid or any of the I don’t know.

04:13 Brooke DiPalma

No more?

04:13 Speaker A

Yeah, the powdered mixes. I don’t know. I’ve kind of removed them from my pantry anyway. Brooke, thank you.

04:25 Brooke DiPalma

Pleasure.