The American public has been following in the Europeans Union movement by demand in moving towards an all-natural diet in recent years and many large food organizations are beginning to take notice. Nestlé’ USA; America’s largest food company has recently announced that they would remove artificial colors and FDA certified colors from all of its chocolate candy products. They will also remove artificial flavors from 250 products and 10 candy bars by the end of 2015.
Currently US food companies use artificial colors to achieve the bright reds and deep blue’s American’s are used to seeing while eating candy. These same companies are selling the same product within the EU but they are using natural food coloring, carrots, sweat potatoes, radishes, etc.
Nestlé’ competes with Hershey, Mars and other companies in an oligopoly market where each firm is trying to get consumers to buy very similar candy products and need to stay ahead of the other to make a profit. There have been numerous businesses that have produced all natural candy products in the past but Nestlé’ was the first major U.S. candy manufacture to make this sort of commitment. So when Nestlé’ made the huge announcement of no longer using artificial colors and flavors other companies had to respond. With in days of Nestlé’s announcement two companies did just that. Hershey made a similar claim, stating that they would reformulate their recipes to simple ingredients. Mars is now defending their use of artificial colors and admits to looking into alternatives but is stating it cannot happen overnight. How many other companies have taken notice and are in the process of doing something very similar?
Nestlé’ is stating they are making this move in response to consumer demand over the recent years. A recent survey conducted by Nielsen’s 2014 Global Health & Wellness Survey revealed that 60% of American’s would prefer a candy that is free from artificial color and flavors. If Nestlé’ can successfully remove artificial colors and flavors from its product with out affecting taste, texture, or the overall enjoyment of the good they could they might be able to steal a few consumers from Hershey and Mars.
By replacing artificial ingredients with more expensive natural ingredients, one would assume the cost of production would increase. This increase should translate into a higher cost for the consumer. Not only could the cost of ingredients be passed to the costumer Nestle could pass off all the cost of research, upgrading production plants and any other expense related to going all natural. If Nestle were to pass this added cost onto the consumer they could potentially lose the costumers they might have gained by changing to an all-natural product, but instead they are keeping prices were they are today.
Nestlé’ is already working on the marketing scheme to make everyone aware of the improvements hey are making in their products. By making statements like “We never compromise on taste. When making these changes to more than 75 recipes, maintaining the great taste and appearance consumers expect from the chocolate brands they know and love is our #1 priority,” said Leslie Mohr, nutrition, health and wellness manager, Nestlé Confections & Snacks. “We conducted consumer testing to ensure the new recipe delivers on our high standards for taste and appearance.” Nestle is reassuring the consumer that it is doing everything to kept business as usually. They are also redesigning the packaging to allow consumers to quickly differentiate their product from all the other inferior products.

Nestlé’ accounts for one quarter of the $100 billion in in annual sales and with

Nestle, Hershey, and Mars all have operations based in the EU and are complying with their laws to manufacture candy products free from artificial flavors and colors. These companies are producing the “same” candies in the EU as they are in the US. Then why cannot we not have the

If you've ever eaten candy from the U.K. or any other EU country, you might have noticed some unusual ingredients. For example, Nestle's chocolate Smarties contain radish, lemon and red cabbage for coloring, but not Yellow number 6 or Red number 40. So the Center for Science in the Public Interest is calling on some U.S. food companies to stop using artificial dyes and has petitioned the FDA to regulate food dyes more strictly. Michael Jacobson is the center's executive director, and he's with us to talk about that. Michael, welcome.