Walmart Will Remove Food Dyes From Its Great Value Brand — But It Won't Happen Right Away

Synthetic and natural dyes have been used in foods and other ingestible items — like prescription medications and over-the-counter drugs — for decades. And while many people enjoy eating candy apple red licorice, or pouring their sick child a cup of purple grape juice, some people would like to see artificial dyes removed from these products.

Among them is the federal government, which has been blasting the food industry's use of synthetic food dyes since the start of 2025.

While some retailers have been working on cutting back on these dyes for years, others are just starting to catch up with the trend.

Is Walmart eliminating food dyes? You can find out more about the massive retailer's plan for its line of food and ingestible products, as well as some other things that Walmart says it plans to do in the coming years to increase transparency about what is in all of the products that people purchase each year from the company's stores.

On Oct. 1, 2025, Walmart made a major announcement about the company's Great Value brand, according to CBS News. The retailer revealed a detailed plan to eliminate synthetic dyes from its products. The changes will take place over several years, with a plan to have all synthetic dyes eliminated from products by 2027.

In the meantime, the store says customers will begin seeing some reformulated products as it works through the estimated 1,000 products that will be reformulated.

Walmart said that the company came to the decision based on consumer sentiment. The retail giant serves a whopping 250 million customers around the world each week, both its brick-and-mortar stores and online.

"Our customers have told us that they want products made with simpler, more familiar ingredients — and we've listened," the company's CEO said in a statement reviewed by CBS News.

What can you expect from your favorite Great Value brand items? Well, chances are you may not even notice a change, according to Walmart, which says that 90 percent of its products are already free from synthetic food dyes.

In addition to removing synthetic dyes from its remaining products, Walmart also pledged to eliminate 30 other ingredients. According to NBC News, that list includes some preservatives, fat substitutes, and artificial sweeteners. For example, customers can expect to no longer see things like potassium bromate and propylparaben in their Great Value buys.

Additionally, the list of items Walmart is dropping includes some that have already been banned at a state level in certain areas.

It sounds like the experts expect some pushback as far as the dyes go, if only because the foods won't look as vibrant as they are used to it being. But, considering some stores (like Aldi) have been doing this for years, it's likely that Walmart will have a lot of luck with the decision to eliminate these ingredients once and for all.