A Nestle SA official said the world’s largest food company will remove synthetic colors from all its products worldwide by the end of 2026, making it the first major food company to make such a promise.

"By the end of the year we will have the global Nestle portfolio free of artificial colors," Stefan Palzer, Nestle's technology chief, told Reuters in an exclusive interview at the firm's Swiss headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland. The story was published yesterday (June 30).

The promise comes two weeks after Nestle USA’s CEO Marty Thompson said in an undated blog-like post on the company’s website, “Today, I’m proud to share that we have fully eliminated them.”

"It was not a slam-dunk," Palzer told Reuters of the R&D effort, noting Nestle had spent years researching replacements. "We had to do a lot of R&D work because you have to screen all the natural solutions then you have to test those natural solutions during production, and then also test their shelf-life. We did it because consumers don't appreciate artificial ingredients. They want simpler recipes."

Europe and other parts of the world in some ways has tougher regulations about the use of synthetic colors, but most of the rules relate to clear labeling, not an outright ban (although there are some bans). While the U.S. for years was less restrictive, the current furor about ultraprocessed foods and the Make America Healthy Again movement have led to future bans in several states.

And Robert Kennedy, secretary of Health & Human Services, in an April 22, 2025 press conference strongly asked food & beverage processors to remove petroleum-based colorants Blue 1 & 2, Green 3, Red 3 & 40 and Yellow 5 & 6 by the end of 2026. Several large food & beverage processors subsequently promised to replace them, citing different deadlines.

On June 25 of last year, Nestle USA became the third major American food company to commit with a deadline to removing FD&C colors, promising they’d be out of products “by mid-2026.”