At several laboratories at a PepsiCo campus in Valhalla, New York, 30 miles north of New York City, scientists are busy figuring out how to replace the company’s artificial food dyes with natural food colorings in its beverages, especially Gatorade, one of its core products.

The company’s challenge: keeping Gatorade and other beverages’ vivid and colorful without the artificial dyes that U.S. consumers are increasingly rejecting.

PepsiCo announced in April that it would accelerate a planned shift to natural colors in its foods and beverages. Right now, around 40% of the company’s products contain synthetic dyes. 

But just as it took decades for artificial colors to seep into PepsiCo’s foods, it will take years to remove them. PepsiCo hasn’t committed to meeting the Trump administration’s goal of phasing out petroleum-based synthetic dyes by the end of 2026. The company said it’s still finding new ingredients, testing consumers' responses and waiting for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve natural alternatives.

The company says it can take two or three years to bring a product to market with a new natural color. PepsiCo must identify an agricultural source that will have a stable shelf life and not change a product’s flavor. Then it must ensure it can get a safe and adequate supply. It tests prototypes with trained experts and panels of consumers, then makes sure the new formula won’t snag its manufacturing process. It also has to design new packaging.

Tostitos and Lay’s chips will be the first PepsiCo brands to shift to natural dyes late this year. Most of those products were already naturally colored, but there were some exceptions.

Tostitos Salsa Verde relied on four synthetic colors – Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Red 40 and Blue 1 – to get their reddish-brown tint. The company switched to carob powder, which gave the chips a similar color, but then tweaked the recipe to ensure the carob wouldn’t affect the taste.

In its Frito-Lay food labs and test kitchens in Plano, Texas, PepsiCo is experimenting with ingredients like paprika and turmeric to mimic the bright reds and oranges in products like Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. 

On the beverage side, back in Valhalla, New York, the company is looking at purple sweet potatoes and various types of carrots to color drinks like Gatorade, said Damien Browne, the vice president of research and development for PepsiCo’s beverages.

Getting the color right is critical, since many consumers know PepsiCo products by their color and not necessarily their name, Browne said. 

When Pepsi was founded in 1902, being free from artificial dyes was a point of pride. The company marketed Pepsi as “The Original Pure Food Drink” to differentiate it from rivals who were using lead, arsenic and other toxins as food colors before the U.S. banned them in 1906.

But synthetic dyes eventually won over food companies. They were vivid, consistent and cheaper than natural colors. They are also rigorously tested by the FDA and contain no traces of the crude oil they originate from.

Still, PepsiCo watches consumers closely, and about two decades ago it started seeing a small segment of shoppers asking for products without artificial colors or flavors. In 2002, it launched its Simply line of chips, which offer natural versions of products like Doritos. A dye-free organic Gatorade came out in 2016.

The desire for natural ingredients is fueled by social media and growing consumer interest in food ingredients of all kinds. In a recent internal study, the company found that more than half of the consumers PepsiCo spoke to were starting to reduce artificial dyes in their diets.

Some states, including West Virginia and Arizona, have recently banned artificial dyes in school lunches. But PepsiCo says the push against artificial colors has been driven by consumers. 

Regulators have heard that message. In January, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned one petroleum-based dye, Red 3, because it was shown to cause cancer in lab rats. 

In May, after calling on companies to halt the use of synthetic dyes, the FDA approved three new natural color additives. And in September, the FDA proposed a ban on Orange B, a synthetic color that hasn't been used in decades.

Six synthetic dyes remain FDA-approved and widely used, despite mixed studies that show they may cause neurobehavioral problems in some children. Red 40, for example, is used in 25,965 food and beverage items on U.S. store shelves, according to the market research firm NIQ. 

But even if decades of research has shown that synthetic colors are safe, PepsiCo has to weigh consumer perceptions.

They have to balance the needs of consumers who don’t want their favorite snacks and drinks to change or get more expensive because of the costs of natural dyes. NIQ data shows that unit sales of products advertised as free of artificial colors fell sharply in 2023 as prices rose.

AP video shot by Ted Shaffrey