Plant-based colorants such as beets and carrots still dominate conversations about natural alternatives to synthetic food dyes. However, natural pigments produced by microbes in fermentation tanks can outperform some botanicals on taste, consistency, and stability, claim startups in the field.
Lycoredand others have been using the fungusBlakeslea trisporato make beta-carotene (an orange pigment and bioactive) for years, whileDDW(now part of Givaudan) uses the microalgaeGaldieria sulphuraria to produce blue colors.
However, several new startups have emerged in recent years arguing that food colors made via fermentation can deliver superior performance, especially for red hues, and provide a consistent supply of product that can be produced closer to end markets.
Michroma: Promising ‘remarkable stability across pH ranges and temperature conditions’
Speaking to AgFunderNews after FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary unveiled plans (although not formal rulemaking) to phase out petroleum-based synthetic dyes from the US food supply by the end of next year, Michroma founder Ricky Cassini said he was seeing “accelerated interest from investors and potential customers” in his precision fermentation platform.
Michroma, which has operations in Argentina and the US, works with filamentous fungi that naturally produce red pigments, but uses the gene editing tool CRISPR to enhance yield and performance.
“The reality is that many food producers currently don’t have suitable alternatives for synthetic dyes Red 3 and Red 40,” claimed Cassini.
“The main options each come with significant drawbacks. Carmine provides comparable shade and stability, but, being extracted from the cochineal bug, it’s not suitable for vegetarian, vegan, kosher, or halal diets. Meanwhile, vegetable-derived colorants like beetroot extract lack the necessary stability and taste neutrality for many applications, especially in baked goods, dairy, and meat products.
“Moreover, even if current natural dyes worked well enough in terms of performance, the supply wouldn’t be sufficient to solve the increased demand,” he claimed. “Natural colorants generally have much lower coloring power compared to synthetic food dyes, meaning larger quantities are needed to achieve the same effect [although several natural color suppliers now make more concentrated products enabling formulators to use less]. This makes a direct 1:1 replacement practically unfeasible on a global scale without innovative new solutions like ours.”
According to Cassini, Michroma’s Red+ colorant can deliver “remarkable stability across pH ranges and temperature conditions that surpass both synthetic dyes and existing natural alternatives. Unlike plant-based colorants that often struggle with stability during processing, our fungi-derived pigments maintain vibrancy through pasteurization, baking, and extrusion.”
Red+ delivers “exponentially more coloring capacity than beetroot powder, requiring significantly less product to achieve the same visual impact,” he added. “This translates to better economics and cleaner labels for food companies.”
Michroma now has 20+ signed letters of intent from food companies and has completed over a dozen paid pilot projects, said Cassini, who is currently scaling production and navigating the color additive petition process in the US. “The feedback has been consistently positive, with several companies confirming that our colorants perform better than any other natural alternative they’ve tested.”
“The timing of this FDA announcement couldn’t be better aligned with our mission.”
Chromologics: ‘We have successfully scaled our production’
Gerit Tolborg, PhD, CEO and founder at Danish startupChromologics, also specializes in natural red pigments via fermentation with non GMO strains of filamentous fungi, although work is also progressing on yellow shades.
“We have successfully scaled our production and signed an agreement with the Italian ingredient manufacturer Olon,” Tolborg told AgFunderNews. “We have also completed the majority of the required regulatory tests and have had several pre-submission meetings with the FDA. We are currently fine-tuning the formulation of our ingredient, and our plan is to submit to [regulators in] both the US and the EU.”
She added: “We have completed several pilot scale campaigns with large global food manufacturers in different food application areas. Those campaigns validated at scale the great performance (pH and heat stability), color hue (great replacement for Red 3 and carmine), and ease of application (easily water soluble, low dosage needed, no off-taste) of our red color Natu.Red. In terms of cost in use, meanwhile, we are cost-competitive to carmine.”
Aside from performance, fermentation-derived colors also offer some other advantages over botanicals including “consistent supply and quality throughout all batches and all year around, something that becomes more and more critical for our customers,” claimed Tolborg.
“The low costs for synthetic dyes have presented a barrier to switch from synthetic food dyes to natural until now, but if this [phase out of synthetic food dyes] becomes mandatory, Natu.Red represents a great replacement for Red 3 and Red 40.”
Phytolon: ‘We can unlock the full palette’
Israeli startup Phytolon, meanwhile, utilizes two strains of baker’s yeast, one modified to secrete a water-soluble yellow pigment and the other to secrete a water-soluble purple pigment.
Phytolon can then combine the two to produce a wide range of colors from vibrant reds and pinks to oranges that are stable across a wide pH range, says the firm, which has submitted color additive petitions to the FDA for both colors.
Labeling is still to be determined, but as the colors themselves are not GMOs (rather they are produced by GM baker’s yeast, which is filtered out of the final product) they will not be subject to bioengineered food labeling laws in the US.
Phytolon has pilot facilities in-house but has struck a deal with a contract manufacturer to produce its pigments at industrial scale.
“We use the same metabolic pathways to make the colors that you can find inbeetsorprickly pears,” said cofounder and CEO Halim Jubran,PhD, who has been working withGinkgo Bioworkson optimizing its yeast strains to achieve titers it claims can make it cost competitive with natural colors extracted from plants, but with higher levels of purity, no off tastes, and a more sustainable, reliable supply chain.
“Due to the lack of any plant residuals in the colors, we see an advantage in performance without the off tastes that can come especially when you use [plant-based natural] colors in large amounts,” he told AgFunderNews.
The purer the color, he said, “the less undesired interaction it brings with the food matrix, which also means increased stability of the color. So red velvet cake is a good example of an application where right now, most companies still use synthetics and we think we have the best alternative solution.”
Jubran is working with large food companies including Rich Products, which is exploring using Phytolon’s colors in icing, toppings, and baked goods. “The high production efficiency of our fermentation technology puts our colors in the forefront of cost efficiency among current natural colors in the market. And by combining our two end-colors, we can unlock the full palette.”
FDA commissioner: ‘Let’s see if we can do this without any statutory or regulatory changes’
The FDA is:
- Initiating the process to revoke authorization for two synthetic food colorings—Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B—within the coming months.
- Working with industry to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes—FD&C Green No. 3, FD&C Red No. 40, FD&C Yellow No. 5, FD&C Yellow No. 6, FD&C Blue No. 1, and FD&C Blue No. 2—from the food supply by the end of next year.
- Authorizing four new natural color additives in the coming weeks, while also accelerating the review and approval of others (calcium phosphate, Galdieria extract blue, gardenia blue, butterfly pea flower extract).
- Requesting food companies to remove FD&C Red No. 3 sooner than the 2027-2028 deadline previously required.
- Partnering with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct comprehensive research on how food additives impact children’s health and development.
Speaking at a livestreamed press conference on Tuesday afternoon, FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said that taking petroleum-based food dyes out of the food supply “is not a silver bullet that will instantly make America’s children healthy, but it is one important step.”
The food industry, which is currently facing a “patchwork of standards” as multiple states institute their own bans on select food dyes, has also “asked for clarity,” he said.
Asked by a reporter if the FDA had struck a formal deal with leading food companies to phase out synthetic food dyes, and if so, why they did not appear on stage at the event, HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explained: “We don’t have an agreement; we have an understanding.”
Dr. Makary said: “Let’s start in a friendly way and see if we can do this without any statutory or regulatory changes. But we are exploring every tool in the toolbox to make sure this gets done very quickly.”
CSPI: ‘They announced no rulemaking of any sort’
This went down badly with Dr. Peter G. Lurie, president of health advocacy group The Center for Science in the Public Interest: “It’s disappointing that Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary would hold a press conference to announce the elimination of food dyes—only for reporters to learn that the only real regulatory moves here are to move to ban two rarely used dyes, Citrus Red 2 and Orange B, within the coming months.
“They announced no rulemaking of any sort to remove the remaining six numbered dyes. Instead, we are told that the administration has an unspecified ‘understanding’ with some unspecified fraction of the food industry to eliminate dyes.”
The National Confectioners Association, meanwhile, told us that members will “continue to follow regulatory guidance from the authorities in this space,” while the Consumer Brands Association urged the administration “to prioritize research that is objective, peer reviewed and relevant to human health and safety.”
While some synthetic food colors have been linked to ADHD in some children, prompting warning notices on food labels in the EU, human clinical trials do not establish a direct link between these dyes and obesity or diabetes, as alleged by some speakers at the press event.
Bryan Hitchcock, chief science and technology officer at the Institute of Food Technologists, said: “While there is lack of scientific consensus to support such a move – food dyes are generally considered low risk for the broad population, dependent on dietary and consumption patterns – additional research is needed to better understand the impact of artificial food dyes on specific subgroups.”
