The change also affects Skittles, Starbursts and Extra gum
Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- M&M’s will temporarily stop production on two colors
- The temporary change will only affect products sold via Amazon
- Mars, the parent company for the fan-favorite candies, announced the change in 2025
Two iconic M&M’s colors are being temporarily removed from production.
The colorful sugar-coated, dragée chocolate sweets have been a fan favorite since they were introduced by the Mars Wrigley Confectionery division of Mars Inc. in 1941, and nearly 90 years later, things are changing.
Blue and brown will no longer be widely distributed.
“Introducing four options made without FD&C colors in 2026,” Mars announced in July 2025.
The announcement added that M&M’s Chocolate would be among the products “that will soon have options made without FD&C [Food, Drug, and Cosmetic] colors.”
“These new non-FD&C options will be available on Amazon this summer,” the company continued.
The candies — which typically come in red, yellow, green, blue, orange, and brown — were set to phase out artificial dyes as part of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign.
However, finding natural dyes that mimic the colors, such as beets and turmeric, is becoming harder and more costly than anticipated, per Fox Business and the Wall Street Journal.
Employees at Mars’s corporate office in New Jersey reportedly spent months debating whether a three-color mix featuring red, orange and yellow would work best for M&M’s, but ultimately felt the sunset palette was too strong, per WSJ.
“It was a daunting situation,” Anton Vincent, the leader of the company's North American snacks division, told the outlet. “You’re messing with an 85-year-old icon.”
In April 2025, Kennedy, 72, and now-former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary announced plans to ban artificial food dyes.
"We are going to get rid of the dyes," Kennedy said, per NPR, as Makary added that they were a part of "a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals."
Kennedy claimed "the industry has voluntarily agreed." He said “an understanding” had been reached with food manufacturers to stop using petroleum-based food colorings by 2026.
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Mars previously said on its website that blue and brown would remain: “Existing varieties of these products with the original color blends will still be available in store and online, for example, M&M’S will continue to have red, yellow, orange, green, blue and brown. When we have identified fully effective, scalable solutions across the entire portfolio, we will share additional item commitments and timelines.”
Blue and brown reportedly aren’t being eliminated; they just won’t be in this initial offering offered on Amazon.
A company spokesperson tells PEOPLE, “Four Mars product options made without FD&C colors from several of our iconic brands – M&M'S, SKITTLES, STARBURST and EXTRA – will be available for purchase via Amazon later this year in the United States.”
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