New Jell-O products swap fruit juice for artificial colors

Jell-O — long known for its bright rainbow of artificially colored gelatins — is getting a line of products made without synthetic colors or artificial sweeteners to meet increasing consumer demand for natural ingredients.

Kraft Heinz Co. on Tuesday unveiled Jell-O Simply, a line of pre-made gelatin that the company said is made with fruit juice and has at least 25% less sugar than the regular version.

The ready-to-eat range now available in stores comes in three flavors -- orange, raspberry lemonade and blueberry. Kathryn O’Brien, Kraft Heinz’s head of marketing for desserts, said the products are colored using vegetable juice, fruit juice and an extract derived from turmeric roots.

Kraft Heinz said it would expand the Jell-O Simply brand in August to include vanilla and chocolate instant pudding and banana and strawberry gelatin mixes, part of the food and beverage company's broader transition to natural ingredients.

Consumers are actively looking for foods with natural ingredients and less sugar, Kraft Heinz said Tuesday. That has taken a toll on products with artificial colors and flavors like Jell-O. Industrywide sales of pre-made gelatin have fallen 21% over the last four years, while unit sales of gelatin mix have fallen 4%, according to market research company NielsenIQ.

Food brands have also been under pressure from the federal government to remove artificial colors from packaged foods. In the waning days of the Biden administration, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned a dye known as Red 3 from the U.S. food supply. A few months later, Trump administration officials urged food makers to voluntarily phase out other petroleum-based artificial colors.

Some retailers are also pressing companies to remove artificial ingredients. Target said in February that it would stop selling cereals containing synthetic colors by this summer.

Last summer, Kraft Heinz pledged to remove artificial dyes from its U.S. products by 2027. At the time, the company said 90% of its U.S. products didn’t contain synthetic dyes. Kraft Heinz removed artificial colors from its macaroni and cheese in 2016, for example. But they remain in brands like Jell-O, Kool-Aid and Crystal Light.

O’Brien described Jell-O Simply as a “meaningful evolution” for the 125-year-old brand. It still jiggles and tastes like Jell-O, she said, and it’s still vibrantly colored.

“We know families are looking for treats that strike the right balance between great taste and ingredients they can feel good about, and they don’t want to sacrifice the brands they know and love to get there,” O’Brien said in a statement.

O'Brien said the Jell-O Simply brand is a permanent addition to the company's portfolio and will remain even when artificial colors are removed from the rest of the Jell-O lineup next year. Regular Jell-O products might contain artificial sweeteners, for example.

Like Jell-O, Jell-O Simply's primary ingredient is gelatin, a colorless, flavorless substance derived from animal collagen. Collagen is sourced from the skin, bones and connective tissues of animals like cows, pigs or fish, according to the Michigan State University Center for Research on Ingredient Safety.

As with some other natural products — like Lay's Simply Cheetos — consumers will pay slightly more for Jell-O Simply. A Jell-O Simply pre-made four-pack is $3.99, or 46 cents more than a regular Jell-O four-pack, the company said.