WK Kellogg Co, now owned by Ferrero Group, announced that its full portfolio of cereals will be made without artificial colors by the end of 2026, which puts the company ahead of the schedule set for this reformulation in July 2025.

Since then, WK Kellogg did double down, in a sense, and signed an agreement with the attorney general of Texas that it would remove all artificial colorings from its cereals by 2027 — as originally planned nationally. And this publication has not seen any indication that reformulation of items like Kellogg’s Froot Loops and Apple Jacks, among others, had hit any snags along the way. So the company will meet its target a year ahead of schedule, planning to ship product containing only natural colors to retailers before year’s end.

The new color ingredients will be derived from fruit and vegetable juice sources as well as other plant-based ingredients, the company noted. A “significant investment” in WK Kellogg processing facilities has been made to support the changes.

“We conducted extensive consumer testing to make sure these recipes deliver the great taste consumers want while maintaining the original rainbow of colors — red, orange, yellow, green, purple and blue — that fans of Froot Loops and other colorful cereals have come to love,” Doug VanDeVelde, chief growth officer, WK Kellogg Co., said in the release. “It wasn't easy but we identified natural solutions for every color, and we're confident families will love the updated recipes and simplified ingredients without compromising on quality or taste.”

The company has been under fire for years to make these changes, dating well past the 2023 split of the former Kellogg Co. into WK Kellogg Co and Kellanova (which itself was acquired by Mars Inc. at the end of 2025).

WK Kellogg had already reformulated foods bound for schools to be free of artificial colors, and it also discontinued launches of new products that contained artificial colors this past January.

In addition, the timeline to eliminate the preservative BHT from cereal packaging has been accelerated, and that change is expected to be completed by year’s end as well, the company said.