The U.S. administration wants artificial additives cut out, and so do a growing number of global consumers. But what needs to happen to make it work?
By Nurit Ben
It’s a shift ramping up resources and attention across the food industry: the U.S. signaling the end of the heyday of additives that for decades have defined American food. In an April press conference with the FDA, Secretary of Health and Human Services RFK Jr. announced the first target: artificial food dyes, with eight in particular set to be phased out by the end of 2026. Then, “one by one,” he added, “we’re going to get rid of every ingredient and additive in food that we can legally address.”
In practice, there’s a long way to go in understanding if and how these directives will actually work. Major cuts to the FDA workforce, a lack of a clear mandate for the food industry, and the complex nature of food production and operations all stand in the way. Yet amid the uncertainty, one point is clear: the regulatory winds are blowing towards clean label. And in many ways, global consumers are already there. As ex-Alpro CEO Sue Garfitt puts it, “people just don’t want chemistry sets” on their food labels.
Food industry heavyweights are always hedging against potential crises, and likewise have been tracking and preparing for the health-forward consumer trend for years. But this U.S. move is turning that flame into a fire, with an influx of resources being put towards finding natural solutions that can hold up to real-world needs. As a senior R&D figure at a major CPG puts it, “In my career I’ve never seen such a shift in resources. When you want to solve something at this scale of operation, you need to deploy a battalion.”
The combination of top-down regulation and bottom-up consumer demand creates a rare inflection point, with both challenges and opportunities. Why? Because talking about natural alternatives is one thing, but meeting the growing demand for them is something else – and here, FoodTech has a pivotal role to play.
The Rise of the Additives
The [deeply flawed] global food system we have today is in many ways still a product of the post-WWII era. Industrialization for a fast-growing population took food production from local to global. Maximum calories across maximum distances. The rise of the modern grocery store. All of it meant systems and innovation geared towards ensuring longer shelf life and consistency. Enter the additives, quickly becoming a standard in mass-market foods. Their endurance turned out not to be just for shelf life – but for an entire market. By 2024 the global market for food additives was estimated at around $120 billion, with natural and synthetic flavors making up for upwards of $20 billion of that.1 Today over 3,000 different food additives are approved in the U.S., compared to about 300 in the EU.2
So what exactly are they? In brief: ingredients that address a host of needs for the food and beverage industry – including maintaining or improving food safety, freshness, taste, texture, and appearance. Among them are preservatives, colorants, flavor enhancers, stabilizers, and emulsifiers. Broadly speaking, they have allowed manufacturers to meet consumer demand for diverse, affordable, and convenient options, while managing consistency, safety, and quality. And if cost and reliability are the goals, then artificial additives are the dream. Far cheaper than natural alternatives, with production in closed factories ensuring supply and consistency at scale.
Old System, New Consumers
The system may be similar, but by now we’ve come a long way in consumer expectations. The numbers tell some of that story: A 2025 report shows nearly 3 in 4 global consumers reconsidering purchases based on ingredient lists.3 79% of American consumers say they consider whether a product is processed before buying it.4 Online, too, people are watching, with upwards of 27 million posts about food additives on Tik Tok alone.
Despite the pushback, we’re still consuming plenty – and what that means for our health is no longer a [complete] mystery. There are a number of challenges in the research, partly due to inconsistency in how ultra-processed foods (UFPs) are defined and categorized. Yet studies do link them to obesity, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, driven by refined ingredients. Additives like emulsifiers have been linked to gut inflammation. Artificial sweeteners can contribute to digestive disorders that weaken the gut’s mucosal barrier, leading to low-grade inflammation. High consumption is associated with increased risk across multiple chronic diseases. Then there’s the addiction element: these are foods engineered to be hyper-palatable, (no) thanks to their high levels of sugar, fat, and salt. The more you eat, the more you want.
Finally, there’s the environmental case. Production of synthetic colors and flavors can lead to contamination of soil and water (requiring waste treatment), and loss of biodiversity. And those artificial colors the U.S. is now singling out? Several are petroleum-derived, linked directly to fossil fuel supply chains.
Getting Practical: The Hurdles in the Way
So ultra-processed foods are wreaking havoc on our health and environment, global consumers want to see cleaner labels, and now the world leader in additive manufacturing is pushing against them. But it’s one thing to talk about these changes in our food, and entirely another to make them happen at scale. Chairman of the PeakBridge Scientific Advisory Board Chris Thoen has spent over 35 years in R&D and innovation, from Procter & Gamble to Givaudan and Bühler. As he explains, there are several key hurdles to overcome. “Switching from synthetic additives to natural alternatives – or eliminating them altogether – requires significant reformulation. You need to ensure the product maintains its intended taste, texture, and shelf life without compromising quality or safety. Not a simple task. Then there’s cost, since natural ingredients tend to be more expensive than synthetic counterparts. Plus, you have uncertain supply chains. Sourcing natural ingredients in large quantities can be challenging due to limited availability and seasonal or yearly variability in supply.”
F&B is a nearly $10 trillion industry, and no solutions can take flight long term without successfully scaling up. Doing so means understanding (and preparing for) the challenges:
- Availability & Sourcing: Natural ingredients often rely on specific geographic regions and conditions for their ingredient supply. That can lead to sourcing challenges linked to everything from political instability to extreme weather, pests and natural disasters.
- Economic Realities: Natural additives typically command 30-70% price premiums, with higher market volatility. Transitioning can require significant capital investment in specialized processing equipment, impacting margins during the critical scaling phase.
- Performance Hurdles: Natural alternatives often struggle to match synthetic stability profiles and functional consistency. Variability in biological raw materials demands robust quality systems, while formulation interactions require extensive R&D to maintain product integrity across shelf life.
- Regulatory Complexity: Navigating fragmented global regulations creates significant overhead, and compliance can require substantial scientific documentation and testing resources, with requirements constantly evolving.
Now What? Where Talk Meets Technologies
As is often the case, where there are challenges, opportunities follow suit. Food and beverage producers that successfully adapt to meet this consumer demand can increase both market share, consumer loyalty, differentiation, and align with broader sustainability and corporate responsibility goals. Yet corporate giants aren’t typically the ones spearheading ingredient innovation, for reasons we’ve discussed at length here. Instead, Thoen says, “To accelerate the development of clean label solutions, F&B producers can partner with startups, research institutions, and technology companies specializing in natural ingredients or innovative food technologies.” Startups tackling these huge gaps should target the whole value chain: science, cost, scale up, distribution, functionality and regulation. A solid understanding of the food industry itself is also non-negotiable to success.
When it comes to flavors, the PeakBridge portfolio includes a number of companies tackling the need. Take vanilla, arguably the world’s most beloved flavor and a market that’s 80% synthetic (with major supply chain challenges to natural supply). With a vertically-integrated operation, Vanilla Vida is creating a stable supply of top-quality, natural vanilla – with 3-4 times the vanillin content of the market standard. Reinventing savory meaty flavors is The Mediterranean Food Lab (MFL). By drawing on solid-state fermentation tech and an AI-driven computational platform, they’re creating flavors made of 100% real foods for a broad range of consumer staples, from plant-based dishes to soups, stews, casseroles and sauces. MFL is ramping up production after achieving industrial scale last year, and as CEO Yair Yosefi says, ‘big food’ plays a crucial role. “Decision makers at food industry giants have significant power to speed up the shift to truly clean ingredients in our food, and they need to be willing to rock the boat. And with the direction consumers are heading, the first ones on the boat will be the winners.”
Another case of science-backed FoodTech addressing the gap is Myconeos, developing new natural colors, flavors and textures for cheese, vegan cheese and fermented meats. They’re doing it thanks to a breakthrough technology that allows fungal strains to cross naturally, something previously considered impossible.
In the quest for natural colorants, one technology to watch is precision fermentation. Phytolon engineers yeast strains to produce plant-based pigments that allow for consistency and scalability; Michroma’s platform draws on fungi’s natural ability to produce pigments; Debut Biotech’s cell-free biomanufacturing platform produces plant compounds including colorants, and Colorfix uses engineered microorganisms to produce and fix pigments.
Funding & the Future
Managing Director of PeakBridge’s seed fund Yoni Glickman spent years in the ingredients space as President of Natural Solutions at Frutarom and IFF. His take? “The transition from synthetic additives to healthier, more sustainable natural ingredients has been ongoing for over two decades. Accelerating this process requires a combination of tailwinds from regulators, greater pressure from consumers and the fast deployment of new technologies ranging from solid state fermentation for flavor development, to precision fermentation for colors, and advanced growing and breeding systems for plants with more of the natural, useful chemicals we need as ingredients.”
Funding is of course also a crucial piece in allowing the tech to take off. As MFL’s Yosefi notes, that’s not always easy to pitch in this space. “Investors tend to prefer funding simple ideas, but once you venture into technology for natural ingredients, you’re getting into solid state fermentation, AI, and more, which requires a more complex understanding. It’s not always a one-liner.” Glickman agrees, and notes the upside. “Investors unfamiliar with this space tend to stay away because it’s indeed more complex than a plant-based brand. When talking about scaling up natural ingredients, you get into real tech, often biotech. But it’s worth it, as these businesses have very attractive margins and clear exit pathways – and the more funding we’ll see of science-backed solutions, the more we’ll be able to see real alternatives in our food on a global scale.”
Bottom line, the traditional food system built to keep products on shelves and travel long distances – with less consideration of nutrition or health – is no longer suited to modern needs. Whether in artificial flavors and colors in particular, or ultra-processed foods more broadly, the new U.S. government shift towards clean label is one more push for a food industry already feeling the heat from consumers. The convergence of regulatory pressure, consumer demand and environmental factors is creating a new space – for innovators, investors, and a food industry tasked with changing its modus operandi.