Mars has spent millions of dollars and assigned roughly 100 staffers to a single problem: how to make M&M's blue without the chemical that currently does it. The company has failed. About a quarter of that 100-person team has been working on blue alone, as Mars aims to have all six classic colors in natural form by 2028.
In August, to mark the candy's 85th anniversary, Mars will launch its first dye-free M&M's. The new bags will contain red, orange, yellow, and green pieces — with blue and brown temporarily missing. Mars produces 600 million M&M's a day in the US, and turning that volume dye-free has become what the Wall Street Journal calls a multimillion-dollar headache.
The colors aren't disappearing by choice. The shift follows pressure from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" campaign to remove synthetic dyes from popular foods, compounded by state-level crackdowns and a Texas investigation into Mars' marketing around dyes. What started as a regulatory talking point is now a supply chain crisis for one of the most recognized snack brands on Earth — and an unplanned identity crisis for the people who run it.
