FDA Revokes 3 Solvents Used in Annatto, Paprika and Turmeric Colors

12 November 2026, Silver Spring, US: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is withdrawing every remaining authorization for three industrial solvents in the making of food colors, including methylene chloride, a chemical the agency says has been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. The revocations, announced on November 9 by the agency’s Human Foods Program, take effect on January 11, 2027, and leave the three solvents with no authorized role at all in US color additives.

The action covers methylene chloride, ethylene dichloride and trichloroethylene, all chlorinated solvents that were historically used to pull pigment out of plant material. Under the rules being revoked, they were permitted in producing three plant-derived colors that are widely used across the food industry: annatto extract, paprika oleoresin and turmeric oleoresin. An oleoresin is a concentrated mix of a plant’s oils and pigments, typically drawn out of dried spice with a solvent that is later evaporated off. A separate authorization allowing methylene chloride as a diluent, or thinning agent, in inks used to stamp fruit and vegetables is also being withdrawn.

The FDA acted on two petitions that reached the same end by different routes. The first came from a coalition of public health and environmental groups, the Environmental Defense Fund, Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, the Center for Environmental Health and the Environmental Working Group, together with food additive specialist Lisa Lefferts. That petition relied on the Delaney Clause, a provision of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that bars the agency from approving a food or color additive found to induce cancer in humans or animals. The FDA cited this clause in removing methylene chloride from produce-marking inks.

The second petition came from the industry itself. The International Association of Color Manufacturers, which represents companies that make food colors, asked the FDA to strike the solvent authorizations for annatto, paprika and turmeric colors on the grounds that manufacturers had already abandoned those uses. The agency agreed that the petitioner had shown the uses were no longer in practice.

The agency’s notice does not name a responsible official, does not set separate compliance dates beyond the January effective date, and does not estimate how many products are affected. Because the industry petition rests on abandonment rather than a new safety finding, the practical effect for most color suppliers is to bring the rulebook into line with how the colors are already made.

From spice fields to the color vat

The three colors at the center of the action are agricultural products before they are food ingredients. Annatto comes from the seeds of the achiote shrub (Bixa orellana), a tropical plant grown commercially in Latin America, parts of Africa and South Asia, and it gives the yellow to orange shade seen in many cheeses, butter, snacks and breakfast cereals. Paprika oleoresin is extracted from dried red capsicum peppers and is used to deepen the red of sausages, sauces, seasonings and snack coatings. Turmeric oleoresin is drawn from the rhizome, or underground stem, of the turmeric plant, a crop dominated by India, and supplies a bright yellow to mustards, dressings, rice mixes and beverages.

All three sit in a category regulators call colors exempt from certification, meaning they do not require FDA batch testing before sale, unlike the petroleum-based synthetic dyes that carry names such as Red No. 40 or Yellow No. 5. That distinction has become commercially important as food makers in the United States reformulate products to replace synthetic dyes with plant and mineral-based colors, which in turn draws more demand toward pepper, turmeric, annatto and other pigment crops.

For growers and spice processors in exporting countries, the revocation sets a clear legal line for extracts bound for the US market. Any oleoresin produced with the three solvents after the effective date would no longer have an authorized basis for use as a color in food sold in the United States, which puts the onus on importers to confirm the extraction process used by overseas suppliers.

Methylene chloride is also known as dichloromethane. Ethylene dichloride and trichloroethylene, the other two solvents, are likewise chlorinated industrial chemicals, and the FDA accepted the color manufacturers’ showing that their food color uses had already been abandoned.

The FDA published two notices covering the actions, one responding to the coalition led by the Environmental Defense Fund and one to the color manufacturers’ association, and directed questions to its general information line.

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