How Might Jell-O Look and Taste When Artificial Dyes Are Removed?

Turning wobbly blobs of clear gelatin red or orange using natural ingredients takes beet juice and a touch of annatto from the seeds of a tropical tree.

But making gelatin green? That one is difficult for Simple Mixes, a company that makes naturally flavored and colored gelatin. Its founder, Malathy Nair, uses a blend of yellow turmeric extract with spirulina, an extract from algae that produces shades of green and blue.

But spirulina tends to form clumps (who wants floaties in gelatin?) and can have an off-putting taste that Dr. Nair describes as “seedy.” To overcome the unwelcome flavor, she has to use more natural lime flavor, making green the most expensive gelatin her company produces.

Even after all that, the gelatin isn’t a saturated, bright green. It’s dull. The color lands somewhere between moss and spinach. “I’m not that happy with how the green looks,” concedes Dr. Nair, who holds a Ph.D. in food science.

Turning Jell-O green using natural colorings is one of the many challenges Kraft Heinz is likely to face after announcing this month that it will remove artificial dyes from all its foods by the end of 2027. The manufacturer joins other food companies, like General Mills, Danone North America and PepsiCo, that are planning to dump artificial colors in the next couple of years.

Across the country, food scientists are mixing fruit and vegetable juices with spices in a race to create blends of colors that can replicate artificial dyes currently widely used in foods, drinks and snacks found in most American pantries.

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