Creators of the iconic candy brand M&M’s have been working to remove artificial dyes, but sweet lovers may not find the colors blue and brown in the upgraded Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) version.

The Mars brand has been working to reinvent the candy without artificial dyes as part of President Donald Trump’s MAHA agenda, but the company has had trouble with the colors blue and brown, the New York Post reported Friday.


The brand is about to debut a natural-ingredient version that includes red, orange, and yellow M&M’s without artificial dyes, but blue and brown have posed significant challenges to the candy makers.

The ingredient spirulina was chosen as a natural substitute for the artificial dye but has apparently become an issue due to it clogging machines at the factory, the Post article continued:

But the algae-based ingredient requires roughly seven times as much pigment to achieve that M&M “cerulean” hue and ends up creating a thick, foamy mixture that leaves an unwanted plaque, much like what you try to avoid after eating candy.

The coated remnants are said to cause a buildup in pipes and, eventually, mold, which poses a food-safety hazard.

The blue problem has become so complicated that Mars will debut naturally colored M&M’s in August without two of its classic shades, because brown relies heavily on blue coloring to achieve the look.

According to UT MD Anderson, the FDA had approved several artificial dyes identified as Blue No. 1, Blue No. 2, Citrus Red No. 2, Green No. 3, Red No. 3, Orange B, Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5, and Yellow No. 6.

Some natural food dyes listed were beet juice and powder, beta-carotene, butterfly pea flower extract, fruit juice, riboflavin, saffron, spirulina extract, turmeric, and vegetable juice.

The website noted there were several main health concerns when it came to artificial dyes that included hyperactivity and neurobehavioral problems in children, along with the general risk of developing cancer.

In July, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said almost 35 percent of the U.S. food industry committed to removing artificial dyes from products, Breitbart News reported.

This week, the outlet reported Nestlé officially removed all FD&C colors one year after pledging to take the step.


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sweet lovers may not find the colors blue and brown in the upgraded...version

So, who cares?

Nobody likes the brown ones anyway!

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Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Nobody likes the brown ones anyway!

T'hell you say!

What about green?

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Nobody likes the brown ones anyway!

The Real Reason Why Van Halen Asked Venues For Bowls of M&Ms Containing ‘No Brown Ones’

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In his autobiography, Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth discusses just how intricate the band’s concerts really were, “Van Halen was the first to take 850 par lamp lights – huge lights – around the country. At the time, it was the biggest production ever. We’d pull up with nine eighteen-wheeler trucks, full of gear, where the standard was three trucks, max. And there were many, many technical errors – whether it was the girders couldn’t support the weight, or the flooring would sink in, or the doors weren’t big enough to move the gear through.”

Roth also revealed that if the band noticed a brown M&M in one of the bowls, they would know that the venue was not paying attention to their hefty concert rider. Roth stated, “When I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl, well, line-check the entire production. Guaranteed you’re going to arrive at a technical error. They didn’t read the contract. Guaranteed you’d run into a problem. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show. Something like, literally, life-threatening.”

Yeah, well there aren't a lot of things in nature that are blue.

It would be a harder stretch to imagine someone seeing an oil slick in the parking lot and thinking 'That will make my snack pretty!'

Aren’t blueberries blue? They are natural, last time I checked.

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Originally posted by oddball:

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Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Nobody likes the brown ones anyway!

The Real Reason Why Van Halen Asked Venues For Bowls of M&Ms Containing ‘No Brown Ones’

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Roth also revealed that if the band noticed a brown M&M in one of the bowls, they would know that the venue was not paying attention to their hefty concert rider. Roth stated, “When I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl, well, line-check the entire production. Guaranteed you’re going to arrive at a technical error. They didn’t read the contract. Guaranteed you’d run into a problem. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show. Something like, literally, life-threatening.”

IIRC, Durr Bland Durr Bland had a rider for bowls of M&M's with no browns, no tans. Same thing. To verify the venue had read the contract riders.

I'm OK with this. I'm already a big fan of the Simply or NKD brand of chips without all of the artificial BS. I try to avoid artificial dyes when shopping as much as I can.

I don't really care what color my M&Ms are, anyway.

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Originally posted by XinTX:.

Having spent some time in the touring world, this is exactly why the production companies do strange shit like this. And it’s extremely common and a long running tradition. I spoke to an old guy who worked with the Rat Pack and they had similar crazy requests for the same purpose.

The artists themselves don’t give a shit if there is a blue m&m in a jar they will probably not even open and most of them don’t even know it’s in the contract. It’s strictly to make sure that the venue read the contract.