By Brian Bienkowski Kraft Heinz, the food giant behind dozens of popular brands including Oscar Mayer, Jell-O, Velveeta and Kool-Aid, will not launch any new foods with synthetic dyes and will remove the dyes from its current products by the end of 2027, the company said Tuesday.
Honest answer is probably that they intend to replace those dyes because people won't buy the products if they don't look appealing, and the food science, testing, sourcing, manufacturing changes and regulations all take some time. Sure, it might have been better to start years ago, but the 2nd best time to plant a tree is today.
They have a lot of synthetic dyes on hand that they do not wish to waste.
They have to secure and arrange new reliable supply chains for the natural dyes and probably arrange new processes for storing and using the dyes as they will not be 1:1 with the synthetics.
They may want to transition slowly, maybe product testing in specific areas to see how consumers react to the new look, taste (because natural dyes usually affect that), and labeling, and adjusting accordingly before rolling out to the whole counry/world.