M&M's Are Changing After 85 Years, And These 2 Classic Colors Are Nowhere To Be Found

The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement continues to enact changes which are affecting household products. (Ironically, President Donald Trump barely follows MAHA's dietary guidelines.) The latest shift has to do with the beloved, candy-shell coated M&M's chocolates, which are getting an artificial dye-free makeover come August; 85 years after the candy first debuted. Two classic colors, blue and brown, will be eliminated from the lineup due to the fact the natural versions of these food dyes are too costly to be made at scale.

The company attempted to create a new blue dye using spirulina, which is a natural dye derived from algae, but the pigment is too expensive to manage at scale. During testing of the production process, the spirulina-based dye also had a tendency to gunk up industrial machinery, which would cause even more headaches down the line; including potential food safety hazards like mold. Interestingly enough, blue is a contributing color to brown, which is why both colors got nixed. (Green doesn't require a headache-inducing amount of spirulina, which is why it's still in the lineup.) The other colors in the lineup transitioned to natural sources of dye more easily with the help of ingredients like beets and turmeric, so they will all still be there after the transition.

M&M's are far from the only product dealing with dye changes. When you imagine unnaturally colorful candies, it'd be hard to forget Skittles, which were affected when Green No. 3, Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, Blue No. 1, and Blue No. 2 were added to the banned list of dyes last year. Other products that needed recipe adjustments included Flamin' Hot Cheetos (there's now the dye-free Doritos line, NKD, which we tried earlier) and Mountain Dew Baja Blast.

The new, naturally-dyed M&M's will be available on Amazon in August (sans blue and brown), but the artificially-colored ones won't be leaving shelves just yet. M&M's parent company, Mars, is hoping to bring brown and blue M&M's back with a natural version by 2028 after it gets its production lines upgraded so they can handle the difficulties involved with spirulina. Whether or not they'll be a full replacement for the artificial ones is yet to be determined, but don't be surprised when you see other brands follow suit through the next few years.