M&M’s are entering their Make America Healthy Again era.
But as a result, two historic colors may end up in the can.
As the iconic candy marks its 85th year this summer and in a broader effort to remove artificial dyes, M&M’s will debut a natural-ingredient version.
And while the brand can figure out how to make red, orange, and yellow M&M’s without artificial dyes, blue and brown are on the chopping block.
As pressure mounts from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA movement to ditch synthetic food colorings, candy giant Mars is spending millions of dollars to reinvent one of America’s most recognizable treats.
But replacing the bright blue shell that has been part of M&M’s rainbow since 1995 has turned into a surprisingly sticky problem.
The culprit is spirulina, the high-protein ingredient often touted as a superfood, which is apparently gumming up the machines at the Mars facility that produces 600 million M&M’s every day.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Mars selected spirulina as the best natural substitute for the artificial dye Blue 1.
But the algae-based ingredient requires roughly seven times as much pigment to achieve that M&M “cerulean” hue and ends up creating a thick, foamy mixture that leaves an unwanted plaque, much like what you try to avoid after eating candy.
The coated remnants are said to cause a buildup in pipes and, eventually, mold, which poses a food-safety hazard.
“It’s the hardest thing I’ve had to do in my career,” Claire Hewitt, the Mars executive overseeing the multimillion-dollar initiative and self-described “chief color officer,” told the Journal.
The blue problem has become so complicated that Mars will debut naturally colored M&M’s in August without two of its classic shades, because brown relies heavily on blue coloring to achieve the look.
The company experimented with other options, including purple and pink candies, but executives ultimately decided neither looked right. Mars even considered releasing a three-color mix before settling on a four-color lineup.
More than 100 employees have worked on the project across Mars facilities, experimenting with just how to crack the coloring code. But the task would come with an expensive overhaul.
To combat the gunk, Mars must upgrade more than 300 machines across its M&M’s plants to handle spirulina, which would include installing new mixing tanks, paddles, and motors, Hewitt told the Journal.
And cleaning the new cleaning equipment would require hotter water, more force, and more time.
The costly makeover comes as the MAHA movement pushes food manufacturers to phase out synthetic dyes, which Kennedy has linked to various health concerns, particularly in children.
Food companies have largely defended the additives as safe and approved by regulators, but growing pressure and restrictions have caused many brands to explore natural alternatives.
While Mars actually pledged in 2016 to remove artificial colors from its food products, it then walked back those plans for candy, saying at the time, shoppers weren’t particularly concerned about the dyes in occasional treats.
Now the company appears committed to offering consumers another option. Naturally colored M&M’s will initially be sold exclusively through Amazon, while the traditional artificially colored version isn’t going anywhere for now.
The ultimate goal is to recreate all six classic M&M colors using natural ingredients by 2028.

A TikTok video showing a woman dancing in a Walmart checkout line after what a caption described as a $3,000 EBT purchase has sparked debate on X about public assistance programs.
The video was uploaded on X by the user MatrixMysteries and got more than 75,000 views as of publication. The post claimed the woman used $3,000 in Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) funds. However, the amount stated in the post has not been independently verified by the Daily Dot.
The original video, which was uploaded by TikTok user @blackbeauty_235, shows a woman dancing next to a cart full of items like milk and cereal while standing in a Walmart checkout line. The line, “spending our 3k in food stamps at Walmart,” shows up in the video. But no details regarding her situation or the size of her household were given.
One X user argued that public aid should only be given to one child per household and only until the child is old enough to go to school. Others focused on bigger financial challenges that older Americans face. “75-year-old women who have worked 40 years, with no childcare, paid into SS their entire lives! They get 1800 a month, not even enough for rent. Choosing between food and medicine,” one user said as they urged recipients who are healthy and physically fit to look for work.
An X user suggested that people who boast about receiving government benefits should face more restrictions.
A commenter who said they grew up in South Dakota wrote that benefit distribution dates were known as “food check day.” Some commenters said they had worked multiple jobs rather than seeking assistance.
EBT cards are used to distribute benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
However, as scholars and anti-hunger activists note, social media videos often lack information about recipients’ financial status, family size, or eligibility requirements.

A new report on the U.S. housing sector finds that activity remains subdued through the first part of the year as high costs suppress demand.
The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released its annual “State of the Nation’s Housing” report on Wednesday, which found that existing home sales remain near the lowest level in three decades that was first reached in 2023.
Sales of new homes remained relatively unchanged, while rental retention rates rose and new occupancies declined. New construction starts dipped 1% over the last year, driven by a 7% decline in single-family starts.
“Although supply shortages are still a major concern, depressed demand became a headline in housing over the past year,” the report said, noting slower growth in the number of homeowner households as well as the number of renters compared with a year ago.
MEDIAN US HOME PRICE PROJECTED TO HIT $1 MILLION BY 2050 – RIGHT AS MILLENNIALS RETIRE
The rate of growth of homeowner households declined by half and caused homeownership rates to decline for the second straight year. Additionally, the year-over-year increase in the number of renters in the first quarter of 2026 was less than half of what it was a year earlier.
Economic uncertainty has weighed on housing demand, with employment growth slowing from a gain of 1.5 million in 2024 to just 116,000 in 2025.
Consumer confidence dropped by more than 20 percentage points in 2025 and fell further in the first part of 2026 due to the Iran war, reaching an all-time low in April.
MORTGAGE RATES TICK HIGHER, BUT BUYERS SHOW SIGNS OF CONFIDENCE
“Without a job, graduates are less likely to form a new household or move to a new region,” the report said. “Without confidence in employment, families are less likely to move or make a big purchase like a house.”
High costs and the lack of affordable housing options are also contributing to the weaker demand, as households are struggling with high home prices and interest rates.
MIDWEST AND SOUTHERN STATES DOMINATE HOUSING REPORT CARDS: SEE HOW YOURS SCORED
The report said that the median prices for new and existing homes are both over $400,000 and that existing home prices have risen 54% since 2020 and are about 5-times the median income – a level well above the ratio of 3-times that prevailed in the 1990s.
Mortgage rates are over 6%, which makes the payment on a median-priced home $3,100 in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from $1,700 in early 2020. That has pushed the income needed to afford that payment to more than $120,000 – a significant increase from $66,000 in 2020.

The empty nest is filling back up.
Millions of young adults are delaying life on their own as high housing costs keep them living with mom and dad. In 2025, 25.2 million adults under 35 lived with a parent, according to new data from Realtor.com. That amounts to roughly one in three people in that age group.
The numbers point to a housing market that remains difficult to break into, even for young adults with jobs and college degrees, the outlet reported.
“The adults living with their parents today are largely employed, and many hold college degrees,” Hannah Jones, senior economist at Realtor.com, said in a statement. “What’s holding them back isn’t a lack of qualifications, but rather, at least in part, a lack of housing they can actually afford. This is a supply story, not an employment story.”
GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS ADD NEARLY $132K TO COST OF NEW HOME, BUILDERS SAY
That supply problem has been years in the making. The U.S. is short roughly 4 million homes, with entry-level properties especially scarce. The gap has widened since construction slowed following the 2008 financial crisis, Realtor.com reported.
About 70% of 25- to-34-year-olds living with their parents have jobs. In 2000, about one in nine employed adults in their late 20s lived at home. By 2025, that share had climbed to nearly one in seven.
For many young Americans, moving out has become increasingly expensive.
The national median home listing price is $430,000, up 34.4% from 2019, while the median asking rent has climbed to $1,673, up 17.9% over the same period, according to Realtor.com.
MEDIAN US HOME PRICE PROJECTED TO HIT $1 MILLION BY 2050 — RIGHT AS MILLENNIALS RETIRE
The delayed move into independent living could eventually translate into a wave of future housing demand.
As affordability improves or more homes are built, millions of young adults who postponed renting or buying could enter the market, Realtor.com reported.
“Twenty-five million adults living with their parents represents a generation of latent demand the market hasn’t absorbed,” Jones said. “Every adult still in a childhood bedroom is a household not formed, a lease unsigned, a starter home unpurchased. The typical first-time buyer is now 40 — that’s not a coincidence, it’s the math of a market that hasn’t built enough.”
The delay can also have long-term financial consequences.
Each year spent living at home can delay a young adult’s ability to build housing equity, Realtor.com noted.
MIDWEST AND SOUTHERN STATES DOMINATE HOUSING REPORT CARDS: SEE HOW YOURS SCORED
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The outlook is not getting easier. According to new projections from National Association of Realtors (NAR) chief economist Lawrence Yun, the national median home price is on track to hit $1 million by 2050 — just as millennials reach the traditional retirement age.
“Essentially, in about 25 years the national median home price will be a million dollars,” Yun said at a conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. “It may be hard to envision that, but back in 1990, the national median price was $90,000.”

The Telegraph notes that Kennedy has already barred Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B dyes, with the FDA working on also phasing out a variety of others. Figuring out natural colors has turned into a multimillion-dollar headache for the candymaker, which produces 600 million M&M’s a day in the US, per the Journal. Beets and turmeric handled red, orange, and yellow, while green can be achieved with spirulina, a blue-green algae.
Blue, however, has become what one dye executive calls the “holy grail.” Mars turned to spirulina for that, too, but its blue candies need more spirulina than green ones, and the algae tends to clog spray nozzles, leading to cleanup after making the blues that would be too disruptive to production. Brown M&M’s also partly depend on blue coloring to achieve their hue.