Hey Besties! I’m delighted to be sharing on a topic you’ve been requesting for a long time! Today we are diving into dye free food coloring! Heightened awareness around dyes, and with the FDA’s recent decision on Red #3, many bakers are exploring options to still create stunning treats in a more natural way. However, going au-natural isn’t necessarily as simple as just a different brand of coloring. I’ll cover how to achieve the best results using dye free food coloring, the brand I am loving along with a whole bunch of honest results from my kitchen! Let’s go!
All Natural or just free from Red #3?
It’s important that we make this distinction from the start! Recently, the FDA revoked authorization of FD&C Red #3, which has caused many decorative bakers to panic. Deep breaths, Bestie, this doesn’t go into effect until Jan of 2027, so your favorite brands will be reformulating their products and you will have options. Beautiful colors aren’t going anywhere!
But there are MANY bakers who are interested in moving to all-natural, dye free food coloring, and that is what we’re covering today. Many families have chosen to go dye free for their households and thankfully, we have options to still cater to them!
The biggest differences for bakers
Choosing to transition to dye free food coloring is a big decision for a few reasons. While my kitchen has been a full-on science lab playing with all-natural coloring, I will tell you that it is more time-consuming to make the vivid colors we’re all after. And it is significantly more expensive, compared to food colors with FD&C dyes. It takes more natural coloring achieve deep colors, so that is something important to know.
If you’re hoping for a simple change of brand in coloring to achieve the exact same results at the same price point, you’ll want to reset your expectations. And hopefully more all-natural options will continue to hit the market, which will make prices more competitive and maybe more options that make it easier. This will be an evolution as more products enter the market and I commit to testing and bringing you those results!
The good news is that there is a big consumer market looking for dye free baked goods and that will continue to grow. So that is an opportunity to market to that demographic and set yourself apart if you have a bakery. Or at a minimum, have the option available for those customers who want it. You will need to adjust your pricing based on the additional time and cost involved with offering dye free baked goods.
Beautiful results are achievable!
I decorated these Valentines cookies with all-natural, dye-free coloring! Once my colors were made and icing was bagged, it was just like decorating with my regular colors. Drying time was the same and I did not notice any changes in flavor using these colors. I achieved the same amount of sheen and polished look to my icing as usual. I will also add that I’ve had zero color bleed which was another test I’ve put these through.
Side note…since I know many will ask, these cookie cutters came from HERE! Aren’t they cute?!
Using dye free food coloring
Most of us are accustomed to using gel colors for the most convenient, vivid results. It’s a slightly different ballgame when using all-natural food coloring. The brand I’m using today are powder-based colorings. And it’s not as simple as just adding the powder to your icing. The best results will come from mixing the powder in a little bit of water and then adding to your icing or frosting. If you add the dry powder to your icing, you will have speckled icing and not as vivid of results. This is why it can take extra time to create your colors using dye free food coloring.
I’m including a quick video HERE that shows exactly how I mix my all-natural coloring to make royal icing. You want to mix the powder with just enough water to absorb the powder and then add to your icing. I often repeat this a few times to add the concentrated color to my icing to create the shade I want. And your colors WILL develop and darken with time. I noticed even a big change after coloring sat for 30-60 minutes. So don’t go too crazy with adding color before you learn how your colors develop. Using dye free coloring is simply a different process for making colors, so be prepared for a bit of experimentation to learn what works best for you.
all-natural coloring I use
A big part of my site is sharing products that offer the best VALUE for bakers. The best quality and results at the best price so you can keep more of your dough. THIS is the brand that in my top-choice currently and is a better value for powder-based coloring compared to another comparable brand. That is the color set I used to decorate the gnome cookies above and they do offer different bundles of colors. For example, THIS bundle includes red, yellow, green and blue. You can also count on more colors becoming available and larger sets which offer an even better price point.
There is also another brand that decorators have been very pleased with, that offers comparable results but costs a little more. You can find their collection HERE. Watch for a full review on their products in the near future!
Here is a gallery of some freshly bagged icing to show you what you can expect from this dye free food coloring!
I’ve been very happy and pretty impressed with the colors I’ve been able to achieve. Getting a true deep red is a little challenging, but I have been happy with my results, knowing they are all natural. I have a couple close friends who have dye free families and I’m super excited to be able to make stunning cookies for them again!
dye free food coloring takeaways
I commend all bakers who go dye free! Not only is it clearly the healthiest choice, but it does take more time and does cost more. But if offering all natural colors is important to you, I encourage you to dive in! It does require a very different color mixing method, but I’m so happy these options are available. I’m personally excited to be able to accommodate more dye free cookie requests!
If you plunge into the au natural, I’d love to see your results! Share in our Besties group HERE where thousands of us hang out to help and celebrate our bakes!
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hi Ericka, first of all, thanks so much for sharing all your beautiful work and lessons. it makes me want to continue to get better. i clicked on your “This” to get to the brand of natural food colouring. it took me to amazon, but couldnt see it. all i saw was the regular food colouring. can you share the name of the company that makes the product and i will research it.
thx so much
Hi Mary! I checked and both links appear to be working for different color sets. The Valentine color bundle is here: https://amzn.to/3E5vnG4 And the more primary color bundle is here: https://amzn.to/4hb8ijR
My gel colors, the get darker over time. Do these do that too?
Hi Robin, yes, as noted in the blog post, these colors will develop and it happens much quicker than with gel colors. I commonly notice distinct changes in colors within 30-60 min of mixing.