MINNEAPOLIS — As the federal government steps up scrutiny of food ingredients, another big food company has made a commitment to remove artificial colors from its products.

General Mills Inc. plans to phase out certified colors from all of its US cereals and foods served in K-12 schools by the summer of 2026. In announcing the move on June 17, the company said it also aims to remove certified colors from its entire US retail product portfolio by the end of 2027.

The announcement by Minneapolis-based General Mills came later in the same day that the Kraft Heinz Co. unveiled a plan to remove all Food, Drug & Cosmetic (FD&C) colors from its US products before the end of 2027.

“Across the long arc of our history, General Mills has moved quickly to meet evolving consumer needs, and reformulating our product portfolio to remove certified colors is yet another example,” said Jeffrey Harmening, chairman and chief executive officer of General Mills.

General Mills said the coloring change will affect just a small part of its K-12 school product line, since almost all of those items already are made without certified colors. Likewise, the company said 85% of its full US retail product roster is now made without certified colors.

Citing “proven reformulation capabilities,” General Mills also pointed to its efforts to boost whole grains in its foods and reduce sugar in K-12 school products. The company, too, said it doubled vitamin D in its cereals in 2023 to help close nutritional gaps and has lowered sodium by 20% across key product categories since 2019.

 “Today, the vast majority of our foods are made without certified colors, and we’re working to ensure that will soon apply to our full portfolio,” Harmening said. “Knowing the trust families place in us, we are leading the way on removing certified colors in cereals and all our foods served in K-12 schools by next summer. We’re committed to continuing to make food that tastes great and is accessible to all.”

In its June 17 announcement, Chicago-based Kraft Heinz said that, effective immediately, it will not launch any new products with FD&C colors in the United States. The company said nearly 90% of its US products do not use FD&C colors, and for the rest of its offerings, it aims to remove colors where it is not critical to the consumer experience, replace FD&C colors with natural colors, or reinvent new colors and shades where matching natural replacements are not available.

General Mills’ and Kraft Heinz’s artificial color phaseout plans come less than two months after the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration enacted measures to phase out all petroleum-based synthetic dyes from the nation’s food supply.

In the April 22 announcement, the FDA said it would begin the process to revoke authorization for Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B within the coming months and work with the food and beverage industry to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes — FD&C Green No. 3, Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5 and No. 6, and Blue No. 1 and No. 2 — from the food supply by the end of 2026. The agency also prompted food companies to remove Red No. 3 sooner than the existing 2027-28 deadline.

The FDA also said it would soon authorize new natural color additives and on May 9 announced the approval of galdieria extract blue, butterfly pea flower extract (blue) and calcium phosphate (white).

Other large food and beverage companies also are making changes. Two days after the FDA announcement, Ramon Laguarta, chairman and chief executive officer of PepsiCo Inc., said his company already has been phasing out artificial colors and reducing other ingredients in its products to meet consumer preferences.