( CNN ) When food giant Nestle USA ( to which I am , alas , not related ) last month announced plans to remove all artificial flavors and colors from its chocolate candies , it understandably made headlines . According to the company , by the end of 2015 , none of a group of 250 chocolate products including Butterfinger and Baby Ruth will contain artificial flavors or colors such as Red # 40 or Yellow # 5 . With the expectation that these chemicals will also disappear from the company 's other candies , it looks like the end of the use of artificial flavors and colors in anything but the cheapest food products . If that proves to be the case , it will be a welcome shift . Nestle USA intends to advertise the reformulated products with a `` No artificial flavors or colors '' claim on package labels . If sales of the `` no artificial '' candies grow as expected , the company will surely extend the removal to all of its other colored and flavored food products . After all , Nestle 's international parent company -- and the company 's competitors -- will have to take notice and find ways to remove these chemicals from all their product lines . Nestle USA has undeniable clout . It accounts for a quarter of the $ 100 billion in annual revenues of the more than century-old , privately held parent corporation , which itself is the largest food company in the world . This move surely will not only reverberate through the candy industry , but also affect every other major food company . In substituting natural for artificial flavors and colors , Nestle USA is responding to what its customers are saying . The company 's own research indicates that Americans prefer their beloved candy brands to be free of artificial flavors and colors , while other surveys find majorities of respondents saying that artificial chemical additives negatively influence their buying decisions . 7 chemicals in your food . Nestle is also responding to decades of complaints from consumer advocates about the potential health risks of these chemicals , especially the dyes . Studies in experimental animals have linked high doses of food dyes to health problems , among them organ damage , cancer , birth defects , and allergic reactions . In humans , studies link food dyes to hyperactivity and other behavioral problems in young children . The credibility of these studies and their implications for human health remain hotly debated . In the 1970s , for example , Ben Feingold , a physician in California , suggested that food additives caused children to become hyperactive . Much of the evidence for the `` Feingold hypothesis '' rested on anecdotal reports by parents , whereas double-blind , controlled clinical trials produced contradictory results . On the basis of current evidence , some artificial food dyes have been banned , while others remain in use despite suggestions that they too might be harmful . But the makers and users of food dyes argue that the chemicals are safe at current levels of usage . As a result of all this , and in the absence of convincing evidence of their safety , the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest has campaigned since the 1970s to remove food dyes and other chemicals from foods , and has continued to petition the Food and Drug Administration to ban them . Kraft removing artificial dyes from some mac and cheese . The opposing views complicate the regulatory status of food dyes . But after one clinical trial reported that dyes induce hyperactivity in half the children studied , the British government asked companies to stop using most food colors ; the European Union requires a warning notice on many foods made with them . In the United States , the FDA does not permit artificial food dyes to be used unless the manufacturers can meet safety requirements . But the amounts of these substances in the country 's food supply have greatly increased in recent years -- soft drinks , breakfast cereals , frozen desserts and even salad dressings all contain artificial coloring agents . True , the FDA considers a dye to be safe if there is a reasonable certainty that no harm will result from its intended use . But that standard is vague enough to cause concern . Given the unresolved scientific questions , it is reasonable to ask why artificial colors have to be in foods at all . From the standpoint of manufacturers , such additives are essential for covering up and hiding unattractive colors in processed foods . To the public , red candy seems to taste better than the drab variety . And while natural colors exist , they are less stable or more expensive to produce . But for Nestle to have taken the action that it has , the company must have found substitutes it can live with . And appealing to consumers ' preference for `` natural '' makes good business sense . The truth is that whether artificial colors do or do not cause health problems in adults or children , they are there strictly for cosmetic purposes . For that reason alone , getting rid of them is a good idea .
Nestle USA plans to remove all artificial flavors and colors from its chocolate candies . Marion Nestle : Consumers pushing for less additives .