The FDA approved a 'natural' red dye that skips GMO labeling

The FDA spent almost two years reviewing a new "natural" red food dye. It approved it in February. A watchdog group objected, and by the end of March, the FDA had quietly paused its own approval. Here's what's actually in Beetroot Red, and why the word "natural" is doing more work than it should.

What Beetroot Red actually is

Beetroot Red is not beet juice. It's made by Phytolon, an Israeli biotech company, using a genetically engineered strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae — standard baker's yeast — that's been given the genes beets use to make betanin, the pigment that turns beet juice deep red-purple. The yeast is fermented in tanks, the pigment is extracted and purified, and the yeast itself is filtered out of the finished dye. Not a beet in sight.

The company calls this "precision fermentation." It's the same production method behind some lab-grown dairy proteins and enzymes already in the food supply: insert a gene into a microbe, let the microbe do the manufacturing, purify the output.

The approval timeline

Phytolon filed its color additive petition (CAP 4C0326) with the FDA in March 2024. The FDA published its final rule approving Beetroot Red on February 6, 2026, clearing it for use in foods generally, with exceptions for USDA-regulated products, infant formula, and foods with federal standards of identity.

The safety file included Ames mutagenicity tests, a chromosomal aberration assay, a micronucleus test, a 90-day rat toxicity study, and a bioinformatics screen for allergenicity. The FDA found no red flags in any of it and said the dye met its "reasonable certainty of no harm" standard.

Then, on March 24, 2026, the FDA delayed the approval's effective date indefinitely, alongside a separate expanded approval for spirulina extract, in response to formal objections filed in the 30-day comment window. As of this writing, Beetroot Red is approved on paper and not yet legal to sell.

Why a nonprofit objected

The objection came from GMO/Toxin Free USA, which argued Beetroot Red shouldn't be marketed as "natural" at all since it's a product of synthetic biology, and separately questioned whether the safety data, built around a single short-term study, was thorough enough to support long-term use in the food supply. The FDA's delay notice is explicit that pausing the effective date "does not reflect a change" in its safety conclusion; it's a process pause, not a reversal.

The label loophole

Here's the part that actually matters for your grocery list.

Genetically engineered ingredients are normally required to carry a bioengineered food disclosure under USDA's National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard. But that standard has a carve-out: if a refining process is validated to remove all detectable modified genetic material, the finished ingredient is exempt from disclosure, even if it started life as a GMO. That's already how highly refined soybean oil, canola oil, and refined sugar get made from GMO crops without a "bioengineered" label.

Beetroot Red qualifies for the same exemption. The yeast is genetically modified, but it's filtered out before the dye ships, so no engineered DNA survives into what's in your food. No detectable modified genetic material means no disclosure requirement, by the letter of the rule.

Layer on top of that a separate FDA policy shift: the agency now allows "No Artificial Colors" claims on packaging as long as a dye isn't petroleum-based, regardless of how it was manufactured. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said the old rule, where any coloring source disqualified the claim, was "confusing for consumers." The result: a dye engineered in a fermentation tank can legally sit on a label next to "No Artificial Colors" and skip the GMO disclosure entirely, as long as nobody can find engineered DNA in the final bottle.

Part of a bigger dye shakeup

This isn't happening in isolation. The FDA is actively pushing manufacturers away from petroleum-based synthetic dyes like Red No. 40 and Yellow No. 5, and companies need replacements that still look and perform like the dyes people are used to. Fermentation-derived pigments like Beetroot Red are one of the answers the industry is reaching for. The intent behind phasing out petroleum dyes may be sound; whether swapping them for engineered-yeast pigments wearing a beet's name is the right fix is a separate question, and regulators haven't finished arguing about it yet.

What to actually watch for

If and when Beetroot Red clears its indefinite hold, expect it to show up in ingredient lists as "beetroot red," "betanin," or "beet extract," with nothing in the label telling you it came out of a fermentation tank instead of a beet farm. There's currently no requirement for it to say otherwise.

Tallow flags precision-fermentation and lab-grown ingredients like this as they enter the food supply, so you can see what's actually behind a "natural" claim before it's in your cart. Check your labels on the Tallow app.

The regulatory status of Beetroot Red is under an indefinite FDA hold as of this writing and can change without notice. This is not medical advice.