Highlights

• Walmart will remove synthetic food dyes from Great Value, Marketside, and Bettergoods brands by January 2027, affecting products at Lafayette’s Ambassador Caffery and Pinhook Road stores
• Great Value is in 90% of U.S. households and is the nation’s largest consumer packaged goods brand
• More than 1,000 products will be reformulated with natural ingredients like spirulina, beets, and root vegetables—some will look less colorful or lose color completely
• Research links synthetic dyes to hyperactivity and behavioral problems in some children
• Walmart joins PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz, and General Mills in removing artificial colors, but says prices won’t increase much

Walmart Eliminating Synthetic Food Dyes from Store Brands by 2027: What Louisiana Shoppers Need to Know

Walmart is removing controversial food dyes from hundreds of products sold in Louisiana stores

LAFAYETTE, La. (KPEL News) — Louisiana families who shop at Walmart will see changes to hundreds of products over the next two years. The company is pulling synthetic food dyes from all its store brands.

According to Walmart’s announcement this week, the company will remove all artificial colors from its Great Value, Marketside, and Bettergoods brands by January 2027. More than 1,000 products on Louisiana shelves will be affected—everything from breakfast cereals and cupcake frosting to sports drinks and snacks.

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What Louisiana Families Need to Know

If you buy Great Value products, expect them to look different while tasting the same. The Great Value brand is in 90% of American homes, making it the largest consumer packaged goods brand in the country.

“This is a direct response to what the customer is telling us,” said Scott Morris, Walmart’s senior vice president of private food brands. “They’re looking for simpler ingredients, simpler nutrition panels.”

Louisiana parents have been reading ingredient labels more closely because of concerns about how synthetic dyes affect kids’ behavior. Research links artificial food colors to hyperactivity and restlessness in some children. The FDA says the dyes are safe for most people.

California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment studied this and found synthetic food dyes cause behavioral problems in some children, especially those who already have attention issues. The research looked at common dyes like Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6—the same ones Walmart is removing.

Will Prices Go Up for Louisiana Shoppers?

Morris said changing to natural dyes is complicated but Walmart won’t raise prices much. “It’s an item-by-item dynamic,” he said, “but our history is: We’ve done an outstanding job of shielding our customers from these moves.”

Walmart says 90% of its store-brand foods already have no artificial colors. That means only a small portion of products need to be reformulated—mostly brightly colored items like fruit cereals, frosted baked goods, and flavored drinks.

What Will Look Different at Lafayette Walmart Stores

Walmart showed reporters reformulated products at its test kitchen in Bentonville, Arkansas. This is what Louisiana shoppers will see.

Cupcake frosting with natural colors looked almost identical to the old version. The bright colors came from spirulina, beets, and root vegetables. Product developer Katie Miles said it took three years to get right—they had to hide the earthy vegetable taste and make sure the frosting stayed fresh on shelves.

Great Value Fruit Spins cereal will look duller. Prabhat Kumar, Walmart’s director of product development, said processed foods like cereal are hard to color naturally because high heat changes how natural colors look. Blues, greens, and purples are the hardest to get right.

Sports drinks will change the most. Walmart’s store-brand sports drinks will go from bright blue to cloudy white because natural ingredients can’t make that blue color. To keep the drinks appealing, Walmart will wrap the bottles in blue plastic sleeves. People associate bright colors with stronger flavors, said product developer Andie Garcia, so the sleeve solves that problem.

When Changes Start at Louisiana Walmart Locations

The changes will roll out slowly through January 2027. Walmart needs time to reformulate products, test them with customers, and change how they’re made. Louisiana shoppers will see changes appear bit by bit across different products instead of all at once.

Walmart is also removing 30 other ingredients besides synthetic dyes—certain preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and fat substitutes. This includes potassium bromate and propylparaben, which California already banned. Walmart says alternatives exist that work just as well and don’t cost more.

Why Walmart Is Doing This Now

Other big food companies are doing the same thing. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the FDA are pushing companies to stop using artificial colors by the end of 2027, but it’s voluntary.

PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz, and General Mills announced similar plans. Walmart says it’s been working on this for years but waited until now because customers are demanding it more loudly and the industry is ready.

“The customer is louder than they ever were, and we felt like the industry was ready for us to move to scale,” Morris said.

Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, called Walmart’s move “a bold declaration and response to consumer sentiment that has become increasingly wary of the long list of chemicals found in so many processed foods.”

What Louisiana Parents Should Think About

The change means less worry for Louisiana families when buying store-brand products. But getting people to accept how the new products look won’t be easy, said Renee Leber, a food scientist at the Institute of Food Technologists.

Trix cereal is a good example. General Mills took out the artificial dyes, but customers complained the cereal looked dull. The company put the dyes back in 2017. Leber said companies need to explain why they’re making these changes and help customers understand.

Louisiana shoppers at both Lafayette Walmart stores and across the state can expect the same message from Walmart: the taste and quality stay the same, even when the colors change.