The campaign to get the artificial yellow dye out of Kraft's Mac and Cheese scored a big victory Thursday after the company announced its plans to pull the coloring from at least three of its kid-friendly boxes in the United States and Canada.
According to the Associated Press, the changes, which begin next year, will be made to the SpongeBob Squarepants, Halloween, and Winter varieties of Mac & Cheese, but will not affect the original flavor of the product. Two new shapes will also be added.
The new natural color will come from spices such as paprika, according to Triona Schmelter, Kraft Food Group Inc.'s vice president of marketing meals. It will also contain more whole grains and less sodium and saturated fat.
Schmelter said the company is making the changes because to improve the nutritional profiles of the products.
"We'll continue to make improvement where we can," Schmelter told the AP.
She reportedly declined to comment if the company would change all its varieties of Mac & Cheese in the future, but pointed out that several of the lines including the "Homestyle" version use natural dyes already.
Kraft has been using Yellow #5 dye and Yellow #6 in a number of its products. Yellow No. 5 (Tartrazine) and Yellow No. 6 are artificial dyes that are approved for use in food in the U.S. if the product is certified by the Food and Drug Administration.
According to the AP, the company's decision has nothing to do with the highly-publicized Change.org campaign that asked the company to remove Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6 dyes from U.S. products.
Change.com petition authors Lisa Leake and Vani Hari, founder of the blog FoodBabe.com, applauded Kraft's decision and said she hopes the company will extend its changes throughout all products. The petition received about 348,000 signatures.
"Kraft Foods is taking a commendable first step in listening to consumers' call to end to the use of artificial dyes in foods that families consume everyday," Hari said in a press release. "Many people supported my campaign because this change is very important to the lives of so many people, including children, who consume Kraft products and are affected negatively every single day by these artificial food dyes."
The petition on Change.org identified many problems with Yellow #5, including that it's made from using chemicals which are derived from petroleum, it has been found to be tainted by carcinogens, and has been associated with increases in hyperactvity, learning problems, asthma, and skin conditions in kids.
Hari and Leake said the yellow dye serves only "aesthetic purposes" and worried that food colorings have been associated with hyperactivity in children, allergies, migraine and, because yellow dyes are petroleum-based, maybe cancerous.
Groups including Center for Science in the Public Interest have petitioned the FDA to ban the additive, citing studies links that the dyes to to behavioral problems in children.
The women taste-tested the two versions of Mac and Cheese and posted it on YouTube. They said they found "virtually no difference" in color or taste. Leake said her children actually liked the U.K. version better.
The news from Kraft comes as another mom, Renee Shutters from New York, launched a petition on Change.org calling on Mars to remove artificial dyes from M&M's candy. It has gone viral, with more than 100,000 signatures.
