WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has taken additional steps to support the transition of the nation's food supply from the use of artificial petroleum-based colors to alternatives derived from natural sources.
Companies will now have flexibility to claim products contain 'no artificial colors' when the products do not contain petroleum-based colors. In the past, companies were generally able to make such claims only when their products had no added color whatsoever - whether derived from natural sources or otherwise.
The agency sent a letter to industry providing notice of the FDA's intent to exercise enforcement discretion related to these voluntary labeling claims.
'This is real progress,' said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 'We are making it easier for companies to move away from petroleum-based synthetic colors and adopt safer, naturally derived alternatives. This momentum advances our broader effort to help Americans eat real food and Make America Healthy Again.'
Additionally, FDA has approved beetroot red, a new color option, and approved the expanded use of spirulina extract, an existing color additive derived from a natural source. These actions were initiated by two petitions and will further help the industry transition from petroleum-based food colors, the agency said in a press release. This brings the total number of new food color options approved under the current administration to six.
'We acknowledge that calling colors derived from natural sources 'artificial' might be confusing for consumers and a hindrance for companies to explore alternative food coloring options,' said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. 'We're taking away that hindrance and making it easier for companies to use these colors in the foods our families eat every day.'
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