The big-box US retailer Target announced on Friday that by 31 May it will only sell breakfast cereals made without certified synthetic food colors.
The company is introducing the restriction amid increased pressure on the food industry from the Trump administration and the “Make America healthy again” (Maha) movement to stop using such ingredients, which they see as dangerous.
Target has almost 2,000 stores across the US and employs about 400,000 people.
“We know consumers are increasingly prioritizing healthier lifestyles, and we’re moving quickly to evolve our offerings to meet their needs,” Cara Sylvester, Target’s executive vice-president and chief merchandising officer, said in a news release.
Food industry reform advocates, who are concerned about the link between such dyes and hyperactivity, cheered the move, which they say will protect children.
“When a major retailer like Target makes that kind of stance, it has impacts across the food industry, and it sends a signal that retailers are siding with consumers who want less artificial ingredients,” said Vani Hari, the so-called “Food Babe” who is one of the leaders of Maha and has expressed support for the controversial US health and human services secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
The change could serve as a win for Kennedy, who has faced criticism from food reform advocates for backing Trump’s executive order to boost production of Roundup weedkiller – which Kennedy previously said causes cancer – and for allegedly retreating on a pledge to regulate synthetic food dyes.
Kennedy “made a lot of promises about what he was going to do at the beginning. He is not keeping them,” said Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition and food studies at New York University.
Food industry reform advocates have for decades pushed for corporations to stop using dyes such as red 40 and yellow 5, which some studies have shown could exacerbate attention deficit hyperactivity disorder among children.
Dyes are commonly used to make foods more appealing to consumers.
The Target announcement does not stipulate what constitutes a “certified synthetic color”, but Hari said that means petroleum-based dyes such as red 40 and yellow 5.
TThe Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not required the action.
Kennedy and the FDA faced backlash after revising their request for food companies to rapidly remove such food dyes from their products by the end of this year.
The agency announced new guidelines this month stating that it would allow food makers to claim “no artificial colors” as long as the dyes are not petroleum-based.
Kennedy said that the agency was “making it easier for companies to move away from petroleum-based synthetic colors and adopt safer, naturally derived alternatives”.
But Thomas Galligan, principal scientist with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which researches food dyes, said on Friday that the revision was “frustrating, especially when the rhetoric suggests they are solving the problem, but in practice they’re just letting industry do whatever they want”.
Meanwhile, at least 25 states are considering legislation to restrict synthetic dyes from food.
In March 2025, West Virginia became the first state to ban such ingredients. Scott Faber, vice-president of government affairs for the non-profit Environmental Working Group, thinks that law affected Target.
“No company is going to make one version of their food for the 2 million people in West Virginia and another version of their food for the rest of us,” Faber said. “Target’s announcement today is simply recognition that states are leading the way when it comes to protecting us from dangerous chemicals.”
Still, companies have pledged to stop using food dyes and then reversed course following consumer complaints and a drop in sales.
“Nothing is holding them to these promises,” said Jensen Jose, regulatory counsel for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The federal government is “just asking, ‘Pretty please, can you stop using these dyes?’”.
Key producers General Mills and Kraft Heinz plan to remove artificial colors from their products for the US market by next year.
