Walmart is shaking up its store brands by taking a page from Whole Foods’ playbook.
The retail giant said Wednesday it is working with suppliers to remove synthetic dyes and about 30 other ingredients — like preservatives, sweeteners, and fat substitutes — from its private-label grocery brands in the US.
“We’re reinforcing our promise to deliver affordable food that families can feel good about,” Walmart US CEO John Furner said in a statement.
More Americans get their groceries from Walmart than from any other chain, and the company says this move represents one of the largest private brand reformulations in retail history.
The company said it ran a survey in July that found more than half of its shoppers review ingredients when choosing food products, and nearly two-thirds want more transparency about what’s in their food.
Walmart’s grocery brands include Marketside, Freshness Guaranteed, Bettergoods, and Great Value, one of the largest private label brands in the US. Roughly 86% of US households purchased a Great Value product in 2024, according to market research from Numerator.
Walmart said about 10% of its food brands contain synthetic dyes, and it expects the rest of the reformulations to be completed by January 2027.
Walmart has limited the ingredients in its food before. Last year’s launch of the Bettergoods brand eschewed artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners and offered more options for dairy-free and gluten-free customers.
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Other retailers have made similar moves. In 2019, Target’s Good & Gather brand promised products “made without artificial flavors and sweeteners, synthetic colors, and high fructose corn syrup.”
And of course, there’s Amazon’s Whole Foods, which has made its mark in part by banning more than 300 ingredients from all the food in its stores, which naturally applies to its in-house 365 brand.
The US government has also taken a sharper aim at artificial ingredients. In April, the Food and Drug Administration pushed food makers to phase out petroleum-based dyes, such as the ones Walmart is addressing now.
Here’s the list of what Walmart is cutting:
11 synthetic dyes
FD&C Blue 1FD&C Blue 2FD&C Green 3FD&C Red 3FD&C Red 4FD&C Red 40FD&C Yellow 5FD&C Yellow 6FD&C Citrus RedFD&C Orange BCanthaxanthin
30 additional ingredients
Titanium DioxideAzodicarbonamideDicotyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate (DSS)Sucrose PolyesterTolueneAnisoleLyeMorpholinePropylene oxideSodium Stearyl FumarateStearyl tartrateFicinSynthetic trans fatty acidButylparabenLactylated Esters of Mon & Diglycerides (OLEON)MethylparabenPropylparabenCalcium BromatePotassium BromateBromated flourNeotameAdvantamePhthalatesPotassium BisulfitePotassium NitratePotassium NitriteSimplesseSodium Ferrocyanide (aka Yellow Prussiate of Soda)SucroglyceridesTalc
