Another food company is pledging to remove artificial dyes from its products, with General Mills being the latest to respond to a request from the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

In a company statement, the cereal giant said it would remove Food and Drug Administration approved artificial dyes from its products in the coming two years. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Administrator Martin Markary floated the idea in April.

The Minnesota-based food company said it plans to remove artificial colors from all of its cereals sold in the United States and all school foods by the summer of 2026. It will work to remove the dyes from its full product line by the end of 2027, according to the company statement.

Much of the company’s work is already done, though, with most of its food that is used in schools already free of the petroleum-based dyes. Also, General Mills officials said 85 percent of its U.S. portfolio is already made without color additives.

“Today, the vast majority of our foods are made without certified colors and we’re working to ensure that will soon apply to our full portfolio,” CEO Jeff Harmening said in a statement. 

Five other companies have already announced that they will comply with Kennedy’s request to stop using imitation colors in their foods. 

Kraft Heinz, PepsiCo, Danone North America, TreeHouse Foods and Tyson all announced in recent weeks that they are working to remove the synthetic color additives from their products, but they did not say how long it would take.

The artificial dyes in the crosshairs are made from petroleum products and are on the FDA’s approved list for food additives. Neither Kennedy nor Makary said the agency planned to remove the dyes from the approved list.

Health advocates have long called for the removal of artificial dyes from the Food and Drug Administration’s approved list, citing studies indicating they can cause neurobehavioral problems, including hyperactivity and attention issues, in children. The FDA has maintained that the approved dyes are safe and that “the totality of scientific evidence shows that most children have no adverse effects when consuming foods containing color additives.”

The FDA currently allows 36 food color additives, including eight synthetic dyes. In January, the agency announced that the dye known as Red 3 — used in candies, cakes and some medications — would be banned in food by 2027 because it caused cancer in laboratory rats. That regulation change was executed during President Biden’s Administration.

On April 22 Kennedy and Makary said they had agreement from some leaders of the food and beverage industry and were encouraging others to remove six petroleum-based colorants — Blue 1 and 2, Green 3, Red 40 and Yellow 5 and 6 — from the food supply “by the end of next year.” 

Those colors, plus Blue 2, were approved by the FDA for use in 1931. Neither Kennedy nor Makary said they would pursue regulation changes for the food dyes, but rather are relying on food companies to voluntarily suspend their use.

Kennedy has been working to cut out the colors from the U.S. food supply since taking office, arguing that “some food producers have been feeding Americans petroleum-based chemicals without their knowledge or consent” for too long. He also claimed that these “poisonous compounds offer no nutritional benefit and pose real, measurable dangers to our children’s health and development.”