USA | The Kraft Heinz Company announced that it will not launch any new products in the U.S. with Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) colours, effective immediately.
The Company also announced it will remove the remaining FD&C colours from its U.S. product portfolio before the end of 2027. Already, nearly 90 percent of Kraft Heinz’s U.S. products are free of FD&C colours (by Net Sales).
For the small portion of products that currently contain FD&C colours, the Company has invested significant resources, mobilising a team to address this complex challenge with a three-pronged approach (3Rs):
- Removing colours where it is not critical to the consumer experience; or
- Replacing FD&C colours with natural colours; or
- Reinventing new colours and shades where matching natural replacements are not available.
“As a food company with a 150+ year heritage, we are continuously evolving our recipes, products, and portfolio to deliver superiority to consumers and customers,” said Pedro Navio, North America President at Kraft Heinz.
“The vast majority of our products use natural or no colours, and we’ve been on a journey to reduce our use of FD&C colours across the remainder of our portfolio. In fact, we removed artificial colours, preservatives, and flavours from our beloved Kraft Mac & Cheese back in 2016. "
He added that the iconic Heinz Tomato Ketchup has never had artificial dyes and that the red colour came simply from the world’s best tomatoes. Kraft Heinz sources the most tomatoes in the U.S., all of which are grown in California, for products like Heinz Tomato Ketchup.
Claussen pickles (cucumbers) are grown in Ohio and Michigan; Ore-Ida potatoes are grown in Idaho; the dairy for Philadelphia cream cheese comes from farms in Upstate New York.
"Above all, we are focused on providing nutritious, affordable, and great-tasting food for Americans, and this is a privilege we don’t take lightly.”
Given that FD&C colours have a longstanding history of approval by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Kraft Heinz has used the colours in a small number of products.
As part of this process, Kraft Heinz is also working with licensees of its brands to encourage them to remove FD&C colours.
Kraft Heinz has made significant progress in innovating and reformulating its products to enhance their nutritional profiles in recent years. The Company has made changes to more than 1,000 product recipes to add protein and fibre, and reduce sugar, salt, and saturated fat.
Through these changes, Kraft Heinz is on track to reduce nearly 55 million pounds of sugar across its portfolio by the end of this year.
