GMO "Natural Colors" in Food

The FDA loosened regulation to allow genetically modified food coloring in foods that advertise having no artificial colors. The FDA announced this change following a petition from a foreign natural food coloring manufacturer that patents the compound Beetroot Red. As consumer spending starts to shift away from foods with synthetic dyes, companies are quietly switching to "natural colors" that are secretly genetically engineered. 

Food tech startups have been perfecting the use of precision fermentation of yeast in combination with genetic modification to produce high yields of “natural colors”. Plant-based meat companies like Impossible Foods and Motif Foodworks have already been using a genetically modified yeast to make their food products have a red meat like color.

The confusion here is how these colorings will be labeled in food since the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard doesn’t require special disclosures if gene editing technologies are used, and it cannot detect genetically modified material in the end product. The largest certification agency, the Non-GMO project, has made it quite clear that colors produced using genetic engineering and precision fermentation will not be verified.

It’s important the FDA lays out a framework for the new "natural colors" and conducts safety testing on the GRAS ingredients.