US FDA permits use of three natural-source colors in food items

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that it had granted permissions to three new color additives, marking them as safe to use in food products and expanding the range of natural-source colors available to manufacturers.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said last month that the agency plans to remove synthetic food dyes from the U.S. food supply by revoking the authorizations of some and working with the industry to voluntarily remove others.

“For too long, our food system has relied on synthetic, petroleum-based dyes that offer no nutritional value and pose unnecessary health risks,” Kennedy had said in a statement.

The health regulator approved Galdieria extract blue – a blue color derived from the unicellular red algae Galdieria sulphuraria – for use in non-alcoholic beverages, fruit juices, candy, breakfast cereal coatings, ice cream and frozen dairy desserts, among others. The petition was submitted by the French company Fermentalg.

It also approved butterfly pea flower extract, a blue color that is produced through the water extraction of the plant’s dried flower petals. This helps achieve a range of shades that include bright blues, intense purple and natural greens and is already approved for use in fruit and vegetable juices, alcoholic beverages and ready-to-drink tea.

Friday’s approval expands its use for coloring ready-to-eat cereal, crackers, snack mixes and some chips.

The FDA also approved calcium phosphate, which imparts a white color, for use in ready-to-eat chicken products, white candy melts, doughnut sugar and sugar for coated candy.