PLANO, Texas — It’s not easy swapping out artificial dyes to make Doritos and Cheetos with colorful vegetables and spices. But that’s the challenge PepsiCo has taken on at its global headquarters for food research and development as it reworks the recipes for beloved snacks like Nacho Cheese Doritos, Cheetos Puffs and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
Instead of Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6, the snacks will be colored with a mix of beets, radishes, paprika, annatto and turmeric.
“They come with their own flavor, right, just like a vegetable would, and we’re blending them into those seasonings,” said Denise Lefebvre, senior vice president of global foods research and development at PepsiCo. “So you really have to manage those flavors together.”
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Food and Drug Administration have been pushing food makers to phase out artificial dyes by the end of 2026 — with a new “Make America Healthy Again” report this week re-upping the administration’s call for limits on food dyes. But PepsiCo said it’s actually been working on naturally colored snacks for years.
“We were already progressing on this journey and really responding to consumers’ needs and desires,” Lefebvre said.
Natural dyes come with new challenges for food makers.
“They’re sensitive to light. They’re sensitive to oxygen,” Lefebvre said. “So we really have to figure out a way to make them stable together so that you have the experience you want when you open the bag and in your pantry.”
Justin French, senior director of R&D for PepsiCo Foods, is leading the team that’s reworking the Doritos and Cheetos recipes. The company is testing them with thousands of consumers. French said they generally like the new snacks.
“We’re hearing we’re getting pretty close,” French said of the naturally colored Cheeto Puffs. “They’re obviously orange. There’s brightness to them. In the natural version, you can see it may be slightly less bright. They are being responsive to that and saying, ‘Looks pretty good. Looks like a Cheeto.’”
PepsiCo hasn’t shared a timeline yet for the naturally colored Doritos and Cheetos. It is also working on versions of the snacks with no added colors or flavors that will come out later this year. French said the company has gotten great feedback on the Nacho Cheese Doritos with no added colors.
“People were like, ‘I didn’t know you could actually do a no-color Nacho Cheese Dorito,’” he said. “That’s promising to us that we’ve been able to actually create a flavor system that signals or signifies what our standard product that we have today is.”
Even though PepsiCo can make the snacks without food dyes, the company said consumers eat with their eyes and still do want versions with added colors.
“It cues things to them,” said Lefebvre. “If you see something spicy, you want a hot product, usually there’s a red or an intensity to that.”
The company is working to build a sustainable, food-safe supply chain: coordinating with color suppliers to plant crops all over the world and figuring out the right blends with spice and seasoning suppliers. It all comes with a cost, which PepsiCo is trying to mitigate.
PepsiCo isn’t just reworking the recipes of Doritos and Cheetos — it’s making moves across its portfolio to remove artificial colors and flavors. The company said 60% of its products already don’t contain artificial dyes. And it said all Lay’s and Tostitos chips will be free of artificial colors and flavors by the end of this year.
Other food giants like Kraft Heinz, General Mills and Nestlé have also pledged to remove artificial dyes from their products.
Some research has linked synthetic dyes to hyperactivity and restlessness in certain kids. But the FDA said the dyes are safe for most.
“The totality of scientific evidence indicates that most children have no adverse effects when consuming foods containing color additives, but some evidence suggests that certain children may be sensitive to them,” the FDA said on its website.
Natural dyes could come with their own risks. Dietitian Erin Palinski-Wade told TODAY.com that some, like carmine, can trigger allergic reactions. Still, many experts say natural dyes could be a better option.
“I do think it’s a move in the right direction,” said nutritionist Perri Klingbaum. “Consumers are becoming much more aware about how the food we put into our bodies impact our health. But it’s not the whole story, right? We need to think about a healthy, balanced diet. There’s no replacement for that.”