Which natural food coloring the FDA allows and how to label it
US law has no "natural food coloring" category. Here are the 35 color additives exempt from certification allowed in human food and how to label them.
Natural food coloring under FDA rules
US law has no category called "natural food coloring". Many colors sold as natural food dye, such as annatto and beet powder, fall under 21 CFR Part 73, Subpart A: additives exempt from certification. Each still needs an FDA listing and must meet its use limits, and FDA objects to "natural color" declarations, even for plant-derived colors.
As of 12 October 2026, Subpart A has 45 effective color listings. Of these, 35 cover human food: 19 for foods generally and 16 for specific foods. The other 10 cover animal or fish feed only. The stayed beetroot red listing is excluded from this count.
What "natural" means in US law
Exempt colors "generally include dyes and pigments derived from natural sources" (FDA). Exemption covers batch certification only. FDA must still approve them before food use.
21 CFR 101.22(a)(4) defines "artificial color" as any color additive, so beet powder is legally an artificial color, the same as Red No. 40. FDA's "natural" policy agrees: it excludes "all color additives regardless of source" (FDA, use of the term natural). And exempt doesn't mean natural. The Part 73 list includes synthetic iron oxide, titanium dioxide and mica-based pearlescent pigments.
Approved natural colorants and other exempt colors
These 19 certification-exempt listings cover foods generally, at good manufacturing practice unless a limit is stated (eCFR Part 73, Subpart A). None may go into a standardized food unless the standard of identity allows added color.
No numeric use limit is stated for annatto extract, dehydrated beets (beet powder), caramel, β-carotene, cochineal extract and carmine, toasted partially defatted cooked cottonseed flour, fruit juice, vegetable juice, carrot oil, paprika, paprika oleoresin, riboflavin, saffron, tomato lycopene extract and concentrate, turmeric, and turmeric oleoresin. Three listings set a cap: canthaxanthin (max 30 mg per lb of solid or semisolid food, or per pint of liquid), β-apo-8′-carotenal (max 15 mg per lb or per pint) and titanium dioxide (max 1% by weight of the food).
The other 16 listings cover specific foods only. Check the individual listing before choosing natural food coloring agents for a formula.
| Section | Color | Listed use (summary) |
|---|---|---|
| 73.69 | Butterfly pea flower extract | Listed beverages, candy, gum, dairy, cereals, snacks and similar foods |
| 73.70 | Calcium carbonate | Supplement tablets and capsules, candies and mints, inks on chewing gum |
| 73.80 | Calcium phosphate | Ready-to-eat chicken (max 1.5%), white candy melts (max 0.25%), doughnut sugar (max 2.0%), sugar for coated candies (max 5.25%) |
| 73.125 | Sodium copper chlorophyllin | Citrus-based dry beverage mixes, max 0.2% of the dry mix |
| 73.160, 73.165 | Ferrous gluconate, ferrous lactate | Ripe olives |
| 73.167 | Galdieria extract blue | Beverages, dairy, cereal coatings, candy, frostings, frozen desserts and other listed foods |
| 73.168 | Gardenia (genipin) blue | Sport drinks, flavored water, fruit drinks and ades, ready-to-drink teas, hard and soft candy |
| 73.169 | Grape color extract | Nonbeverage food |
| 73.170 | Grape skin extract (enocianina) | Still and carbonated drinks, ades, beverage bases, alcoholic beverages |
| 73.200 | Synthetic iron oxide | Sausage casings (max 0.10%), candy, mints and gum, dietary supplements |
| 73.225 | Jagua (genipin-glycine) blue | Dairy and dairy-alternative products, frozen desserts, cereals, chips, candy, drinks, icings and similar |
| 73.297 | Myoglobin | Plant-based ground meat and poultry analogues, max 2% |
| 73.350 | Mica-based pearlescent pigments | Cereals, confections, candies, gum and supplements (max 1.25%). Certain alcoholic beverages and mixers (max 0.07%) |
| 73.520 | Soy leghemoglobin | Ground beef analogues, max 0.8% |
| 73.530 | Spirulina extract | Confections, frostings, frozen desserts, beverages, yogurts, cereals, sauces, supplement coatings and other listed foods |
The 10 feed-only listings, such as astaxanthin for salmonid fish feed, do not authorize use in human food (Part 73). The blue listings are spirulina, butterfly pea, galdieria, gardenia and jagua, each with its own food list.
What changed in 2025 and 2026
The FDA changed these listings in 2025 (Federal Register):
- Myoglobin (73.297), 90 FR 5590, effective 19 February 2025.
- Calcium phosphate (73.80), galdieria extract blue (73.167) and wider uses for butterfly pea flower extract (73.69), 90 FR 20097, 20104 and 20101, effective 26 June 2025.
- Gardenia (genipin) blue (73.168), 90 FR 31586, effective 29 August 2025.
Two rules published 6 February 2026 were stayed indefinitely by Federal Register notices of 24 March 2026. Objections stayed new beetroot red (73.39, 91 FR 5295) by 91 FR 13965. Objections and a hearing request stayed the spirulina expansion to foods generally (91 FR 5291) by 91 FR 13966, so the earlier food list still applies. Beet powder (73.40) is a different listing and still covers foods generally.
On 22 April 2025, HHS and FDA announced plans to revoke Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B. They also asked industry to voluntarily drop Green No. 3, Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, Blue No. 1 and Blue No. 2 by the end of 2026.
How to label a food with natural food coloring
Under 21 CFR 101.22(k)(2), an exempt color may use a generic declaration unless its listing requires its common or usual name. The options include "Artificial Color", "Artificial Color Added", "Color Added" or an equally informative term that shows a color additive was used. The alternative is "Colored with " or " color", with the Part 73 name in the blank, for example "Colored with annatto extract". Certified FD&C colors are different. Each must be named, such as "Red 40".
What you can't write is "natural color". FDA's CPG Sec. 587.100 says: "Since all added colors result in an artificially colored food, we would object to the declaration of any added color as 'food' or 'natural.'" The FDA won't insist on the word "artificial" when you declare the color by its specific name.
Butter, cheese and ice cream need not declare added color unless a Part 73 or 74 regulation requires it (101.22(k)(3)). Under 73.100(d)(2), the ingredient statement must say "cochineal extract" or "carmine", including on butter, cheese and ice cream. That rule has applied since 5 January 2011 (74 FR 207).
"No artificial colors" claims since February 2026
On 5 February 2026 the FDA announced enforcement discretion: it would not object to "No artificial colors", "No added artificial color(s)/coloring" or "Made without artificial food colors/colorings" on foods with no certified colors from 21 CFR Part 74 (FDA letter to industry). Before that, such claims were generally allowed only when the food had no added color at all (FDA press release).
This is enforcement discretion, not a change to the definition of artificial color. The letter doesn't authorize "natural color" claims. Colors from natural sources still need FDA approval before use.
Buying from a natural food color manufacturer or supplier
Under 21 CFR 70.25, the color's own label must name the straight color, or each ingredient in a mixture. It must also state a use limit such as "for food use only", the amount where a regulation sets one, directions for staying within any tolerance, an expiration date where stability requires one, and any other limit in the listing. A certification lot number applies only to certified colors, so a Part 73 color won't carry one.
Each Part 73 listing sets identity and specifications, such as heavy metal limits. Color mixtures for food may contain only the diluents listed in 73.1. FDA does not batch-certify exempt colors, so the food maker has to confirm the color meets the listing.
Natural colourant rules in the UK and EU
Natural food colouring is not a legal category in the EU or Great Britain either. Under Annex I of Regulation 1333/2008, colours include "natural constituents of foods and natural sources", and pigments made by "selective extraction" are colours under the regulation. A selectively extracted paprika pigment is a colour additive, E160c on the FSA list.
A colouring food can be an ordinary ingredient rather than an additive. Article 3(2)(a)(ii) excludes foods used for taste, smell or nutrition "together with a secondary colouring effect". Pigments obtained by selective extraction are still colour additives. Standing Committee guidance from 2013 uses an enrichment test to tell the two apart (JRC report).
The label must read "Colour" plus the name or E number, such as "Colour: paprika extract" (Regulation 1169/2011, Annex VII Part C). There is no generic "Color Added" option. Natural-source examples include E100 curcumin, E120 cochineal, E160b annatto and E162 beetroot red (FSA list).
The EU withdrew titanium dioxide (E171) by Regulation (EU) 2022/63 (European Commission). It remains authorised in Great Britain but not Northern Ireland (FSA list). The US listing permits up to 1%. Check Annex II Part E for each colour's EU use conditions. Great Britain's authorisations moved to an FSA register on 1 April 2025 (S.I. 2025/361).
The RegAffairs AI answer on FDA-approved natural food colorings cites the listings and labeling rules.