Mars Inc. Removes Brown and Blue M&M's from Future Bags

Mars Inc. is removing brown and blue M&M's from future bags, Washington Examiner reported. The company told The Wall Street Journal that it could not replicate those shades with natural ingredients in the same way it had for red, orange, and yellow.

Mars used turmeric and beets to create the red, orange, and yellow colors. It had relied on spirulina for blue and brown, but the raw form of the ingredient costs up to $20 per pound and the concentrate used for dyes exceeds $100 per pound. Turmeric, by comparison, costs $9 to $11 per pound.

Spirulina has also clogged spray nozzles at the company's factory. M&M's will debut a dye-free bag to mark its 85th anniversary. The company aims to have all candies in the bag colored with natural ingredients by 2028.

It pledged in 2025 to offer some options without artificial dyes. Mars stopped adding titanium dioxide to Skittles last year. The European Union banned the additive in 2022. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. formally banned four petroleum-based artificial food dyes: brominated vegetable oil, Red Dye No. 3, Citrus Red No. 2, and Orange B.