Overview
- Mars plans to debut a line of M&M’s made without artificial dyes in August, selling the first batches exclusively on Amazon while keeping the existing artificially colored candies on store shelves.
- The initial four-color mix will omit blue and brown because Mars’s chosen natural substitute for Blue 1, spirulina, cannot yet produce the brand’s bright blue hue or the brown that depends on it.
- Spirulina requires roughly seven times more pigment to approach the M&M cerulean, creates a thick, foamy mixture that leaves viscous residue, and has gummed up spray nozzles and pipes in tests.
- To run spirulina at scale Mars says it would need to upgrade more than 300 machines with new mixing tanks, paddles, and motors and adopt hotter, longer cleaning cycles, making the change technically complex and expensive.
- The move follows pressure from HHS’s MAHA effort and recent FDA actions on some dyes, mirrors other industry shifts such as Nestlé’s phase-out of FD&C colors, and leaves consumers with a choice between the new natural packs and the legacy product as Mars pursues a full-color solution by 2028.