Updated July 31, 2026 · refreshed monthly
The Dye Ban Tracker
The US food industry is removing synthetic colours against a stack of deadlines running to 2028. This is what the labels actually say, measured monthly, from public data.
27,418
US products still list Red 40
at least 31.3%
of tracked US candy & confectionery list Red 40, the worst-affected category
944,146
US products in the tracked database
Why this tracker exists
The FDA has stated an understanding with industry to remove the petroleum-based certified colours from the US food supply, and FD&C Red No. 3 has already had its authorisation revoked on a separate, binding timetable. Several states have passed their own additive laws with dates of their own. These statuses differ in kind, and the difference matters: a revoked authorisation, a state statute and an industry understanding carry very different consequences for missing them. The calendar below separates them, and this tracker measures what is actually printed on labels rather than what has been pledged.
What is actually binding, and when
The widely quoted end-of-2026 date is an announced FDA expectation with no completed rulemaking behind it. Every date that carries a legal consequence falls after it.
- December 31, 2026FederalNot binding
FDA's voluntary target for the six certified colors
The HHS/FDA announcement of April 22, 2025 asks manufacturers to remove Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2 and Green 3 from the US food supply. It is a stated understanding, not a completed rulemaking, and no federal penalty attaches to the date.
HHS/FDA announcement, April 22, 2025
- January 1, 2027CaliforniaBinding
California's four-additive ban takes effect
AB 418 prohibits Red 3, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oil and propylparaben in food sold in California. It does not cover Red 40 or the other five certified colors.
AB 418, California Food Safety Act (enacted October 2023)
- January 1, 2027TexasBinding, under litigation
Texas warning labels required on newly developed packaging
SB 25 requires a prominent warning label on foods containing any of 40+ listed additives, several synthetic dyes among them, for packaging developed from this date. It is a labeling mechanism rather than a ban, and it is subject to active litigation, so verify the current enforcement posture before relying on it.
SB 25 (enacted June 2025)
- January 15, 2027FederalBinding
Red 3 must be out of US food
The FDA revoked the color additive authorization for FD&C Red No. 3 by order of January 15, 2025, under the Delaney clause. This date is binding nationwide with no voluntary component, which makes it the first hard federal deadline of the transition.
FDA revocation order, January 15, 2025 (21 CFR 74.303)
- December 31, 2027CaliforniaBinding
Six certified colors out of California public school food
AB 2316 prohibits Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2 and Green 3 in California public school food. Binding for anything sold into the school channel.
AB 2316, School Food Safety Act (enacted September 2024)
- January 1, 2028West VirginiaBinding
West Virginia bans seven dyes in all food sold in the state
HB 2354 extends West Virginia's school-channel ban to every food sold in the state, covering Red 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2 and Green 3 plus BHA and propylparaben. Because a national brand cannot practically run a single-state SKU, this functions as a de facto national date.
HB 2354 (enacted March 2025)
- January 18, 2028FederalBinding
Red 3 must be out of ingested drugs
The second compliance date in the same revocation order, covering ingested drug products rather than food.
FDA revocation order, January 15, 2025 (21 CFR 74.303)
Dates verified at the last knowledge-pack review and re-checked with each monthly refresh. State legislation moves quickly, so confirm the current position with regulatory counsel before making a commercial decision.
How many US products still list each dye
Products in the tracked US sample whose ingredient data records the colour.
Red 3 is shown for completeness: its authorisation has already been revoked on its own timetable, so products still listing it are the clearest measure of how long label changes take to reach shelves.
Exposure by category
Share of tracked US products in each category that list a synthetic dye. These are floors, not estimates: the data source cannot count products listing any of the seven dyes in one query, and the per-dye counts overlap (one product often lists three or four), so each figure counts only the single most common dye in that category. The real share is higher.
Most common here: Blue 1
Most common here: Red 40
Most common here: Red 40
Most common here: Red 40
Most common here: Red 40
Most common here: Yellow 5
Which dye, in which category
Tracked US products listing each colour. Useful if you are choosing where to start: the big cells are where a replacement programme has the most SKUs behind it.
| Category | Red 40 | Yellow 5 | Blue 1 | Yellow 6 | Red 3 | Blue 2 | Green 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candy & confectionery | 992 | 796 | 914 | 562 | 152 | 174 | 1 |
| Chewing gum | 27 | 15 | 51 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Sodas | 1,266 | 550 | 535 | 512 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Cakes & baked goods | 1,700 | 1,501 | 1,166 | 1,156 | 591 | 372 | 33 |
| Snacks | 14,012 | 12,129 | 11,543 | 9,456 | 3,674 | 3,243 | 53 |
| Cookies & biscuits | 1,494 | 1,475 | 1,314 | 1,231 | 807 | 611 | 4 |
| Desserts | 1,906 | 1,237 | 1,497 | 1,013 | 217 | 125 | 37 |
| Ice cream & frozen desserts | 85 | 61 | 85 | 35 | 18 | 5 | 1 |
| Breakfast cereals | 187 | 122 | 161 | 135 | 3 | 13 | 1 |
| Yogurts | 262 | 58 | 157 | 50 | 6 | 15 | 0 |
| Juices & fruit drinks | 51 | 21 | 16 | 28 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Sauces & condiments | 227 | 313 | 152 | 185 | 39 | 10 | 4 |
Highlighted cell is the most common dye in that category, and the one the “at least” percentage above is based on. An n/a means the count could not be retrieved for this snapshot, not that the figure is zero.
Widely-scanned products that still list a dye
As recorded in Open Food Facts on July 31, 2026. Product names, brands and categories are contributors’ own entries and are reproduced unedited. A few are miscategorised at the source, and we would rather show that than quietly curate the list. Crowd-sourced label data can also lag a reformulation, so every row links to its source record for checking.
| Product | Category | Dyes listed |
|---|---|---|
| Mogu lycheeSappe Public Company Limited | Juices & fruit drinks | Red 40 |
| Mogu Mogu melon flavored drinkSappe Public Company Limited | Sodas | Yellow 5 |
| Nacho Cheese Flavored DoritosDoritos, Build Bold Doritos Nacho Cheese | Snacks | Red 40Yellow 5Yellow 6 |
| Nacho CheeseDoritos | Snacks | Red 40Yellow 5Yellow 6 |
| Chewy spicy candiesHot Tamales, Hot Tamale | Candy & confectionery | Red 40Yellow 5Yellow 6Blue 1 |
| Spearmint Sugarfree GumExtra | Chewing gum | Blue 1 |
| Chunky Salsa MediumTostitos | Sauces & condiments | Yellow 5Yellow 6 |
| Original Beef StickCHOMPS | Chewing gum | Blue 1 |
| Mountain DewMountain Dew | Sodas | Yellow 5 |
| Doritos Cool Ranch Flavored Tortilla ChipsFrito-Lay | Snacks | Red 40Yellow 5Blue 1 |
| Trail MixKirkland | Snacks | Red 40Yellow 5Yellow 6Blue 1Blue 2 |
| Lucky CharmsLucky Charms | Breakfast cereals | Red 40Yellow 5Blue 1 |
| Fruit SnacksWelch's | Candy & confectionery | Red 40Blue 1 |
| Flamin' Hot Crunchy Cheese Flavored SnacksCheetos | Snacks | Red 40Yellow 5Yellow 6 |
| Doritos Cool Ranch flavoredDoritos | Snacks | Red 40Yellow 5Blue 1 |
Label changes we’ve detected
This is the baseline snapshot, so there is nothing to compare against yet. We now track the dye status of 1,511 US products that currently list at least one of these colours (the only products that can drop one) and re-record every one of them each month. From the next refresh onward this section names the specific products whose labels changed, with a link to each source record.
Trend over time
This is the baseline snapshot, the first measurement in the series. Trend lines appear here as monthly snapshots accumulate. We build the trend forward from real measurements rather than backfilling an estimated history, because a reconstructed trend would not be verifiable.
Methodology
Counts are of products tagged as sold in the United States in the Open Food Facts database whose ingredient data records each colour additive. Open Food Facts is crowd-sourced: it is a large sample of the US market, not a census, and label data can lag the shelf. Two limits are worth stating plainly. First, the API cannot combine additive filters with OR (a comma means AND), so the number of products listing ANY of the seven dyes cannot be queried, and per-dye counts cannot be summed without double-counting products that list several. Every category figure here is therefore the largest single-dye count, reported as a floor: the true any-dye figure is higher, never lower. Second, the country tag lists every market a product is sold in rather than a home market, so the US set includes imported and multi-market products that do not use FD&C colours; that dilutes the denominator and pushes these percentages down, again making them conservative. Example products are drawn by filtering on the dye first, which self-selects genuine US-market products. Figures are a point-in-time snapshot; trend lines are built by re-running this snapshot monthly, not by backfilling history.
- Source
- Open Food Facts · Open Database License (ODbL)
- Snapshot taken
- July 31, 2026
Replacing one of these dyes?
The copilot turns a reformulation brief into cited bench notes: candidate colorants with starting dosages, stability against your pH and heat process, and the regulatory status per market.
Open the copilot →Get each monthly update
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