Artificial Colors

Approach

We’re in the business of satisfying and delighting the millions of people who love our products. Consumers are our boss, and that means listening to them and adapting our recipes to respond to their needs and preferences.

In 2016, Mars Incorporated announced its ambition to remove all artificial colors from its human food portfolio globally. This was based on our belief, at the time, that a critical mass of our consumer base was seeking more natural ingredients and would welcome this change. 

Since that time, a cross-functional Mars team has dedicated significant time and investment to develop new ingredients, secure regulatory approvals, address manufacturing readiness, and, importantly, dive more deeply into the needs and expectations of our consumers. 

In doing so, we have found that consumer expectations regarding colors in food differ widely across markets and categories. This has motivated us to reevaluate our global intent and seek to identify approaches that are more locally tailored to address these differences. 

For dinnertime foods across our global Mars Food portfolio, we maintain our commitment to not include colors from synthetic sources and instead use natural colors from food sources to enhance our products. For instance, we use paprika to provide richer color in our Spanish flavored rice. 

For treats, however, we found that many of our consumers across the world do not, in fact, find artificial colors to be ingredients of concern. For that reason, we will continue to prioritize our efforts to remove artificial colors in Europe — where consumers have expressed this preference — but will not be removing all artificial colors from our Mars Wrigley portfolio in other markets. As always, we will continue to offer a range of treats that are already free from artificial colors for consumers in all markets who favor this. 

This shift in approach is consistent with our stated desire to meet evolving consumer preferences, which was the bedrock of our 2016 announcement.

For more than 100 years Mars has been proud to bring our consumers the products they love, while always delivering exceptional quality and taste. As we look ahead to the next 100 years, we will continue to deliver against this standard, putting our consumer first, and offering even more choices to meet evolving needs and preferences.