You’d think the manufacturers would have to stop using artificial food colourings to get them off the market. But Target stores are taking a lead from the retailer side, banishing food products that use artificial dyes. It’s a bold move, indeed…
It’s not the first time Target has made a big splash in the healthier foods pool. But it is timely. And it prods other retailers to get off their profit-motivated duffs and do more…
No more synthetic colours
Target has announced it will stop selling breakfast cereals containing artificial colouring. And that includes a whole basketball team of brands, most of which are aimed at kids.
“We know consumers are increasingly prioritizing healthier lifestyles, and we’re moving quickly to evolve our offerings to meet their needs,” Cara Sylvester, Target’s Executive VP and Chief Merchandising Officer, said in a news release. “Our new cereal assortment made without certified synthetic colours makes it eas-ier for busy families to make choices they feel good about, and shows what it means to curate a great as-sortment and lead with merchandising authority.”
Clearly, it’s about more than your family’s health. Target is asserting itself as an industry leader on an issue that is top-of-mind with many consumers.
Echoes recent bans
The Target announcement comes after the US government declared a ban on Red Dye No. 3. It’s a controversial synthetic food colouring that has been vilified by healthy eating advocates for years.
Red Dye No. 3 is just that, a cherry-red petrochemical food colouring previously used in everything from candy to cosmetics to pharmaceuticals to Cream Soda (see photo, top of page). It’s been in just about every red-coloured processed food you’ve eaten since No. 2 was banned. Especially artificially colourerd beverages such as sodas and fruit ‘drinks’.
The food colouring has also been under the official microscope since 2022 when a coalition of food safety groups petitioned the FDA to ban the substance.
Political connections
The greater issue of artificial colourings as a class was a keystone issue espoused by Trump Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr when he was appointed last year. But Target is way ahead of the government in its blanket ban on artificially coloured cereals.
Target says customer feedback and national studies of sales trends showed a slow but steady shift toward foods without artificial additives. By the end of May, brightly coloured, sugar-heavy cereals will be gone from the chain’s shelves.
Just the latest chapter
The ban on artificially coloured cereals is just the latest in a lengthy history of health-conscious moves by target.
“The cereal update is an important step in Target’s ongoing investments in wellness, food innovation and product development,” the announcement notes. “It also builds on the standards Target estab-lished in 2019 with the launch of Good & Gather, its flagship owned food and beverage brand of more than 2,500 products across dairy, produce, ready-made pastas, meats, baby and toddler food and more — all formulated without artificial flavours and sweeteners, synthetic colours or high-fructose corn syrup.”
My take
As we hinted near the outset of this post, Target is setting a standard other retailers would do well to match. And it’s refreshing to see a retailer taking the lead on an issue where manufacturers should be owning responsibility…
~ Maggie J.