Same brand, different colours
Last updated September 23, 2026 · By the Foodmetria editorial team · how we work
Eight familiar brands sell the same product on both sides of the Atlantic with a different colouring system in each. The American version carries synthetic dyes; the European one is coloured with paprika, spirulina, carotene or elderberry. The reason is not culinary. It is a single sentence that EU law makes manufacturers print on the package.
The eight pairs
Every line below was read off a current label in September 2026 — a US retailer transcribing the package on one side, the manufacturer or a European retailer on the other. Sources are listed at the bottom of the page.
| Brand | Product | Colouring in the US version | Colouring in the EU version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doritos | Nacho Cheese tortilla chips | Artificial Color (Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 40) | Annatto, caramel, paprika extract (Germany) |
| Haribo | Goldbears / Goldbären | Yellow 5, Red 40, Blue 1 | Fruit and plant concentrates: safflower, spirulina, apple, elderberry, orange, blackcurrant, kiwi, lemon, aronia, mango, grape, passion fruit (Germany) |
| Jelly Belly | Jelly beans, 20 flavours | Red 40 Lake, Yellow 5 & 6 Lake, Blue 1 & 2 Lake, Yellow 5 & 6, Red 40, Blue 1 | E172 iron oxides, E150a caramel, E153 vegetable carbon, E100 curcumin, E160a carotenes, E162 beetroot red (Germany) |
| Sour Patch Kids | Original soft and chewy candy | Yellow 6, Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1 | Anthocyanins, vegetable carbon, paprika extract, lutein, curcumin (Germany) |
| Mountain Dew | Original, with sugar | Yellow 5 | Beta-carotene (Netherlands) |
| Takis | Fuego rolled tortilla chips | Red 40 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake | Paprika extract, with beetroot, radish, apple and blackcurrant concentrates (Netherlands) |
| Fanta | Orange soda | Yellow 6 | Carotene (Germany) |
| Tic Tac | Orange mints | Yellow 6 | No colour listed at all (Netherlands) |
Tic Tac is the cleanest case: the American orange mint is coloured with Yellow 6, and the Dutch one lists no colouring ingredient at all.
Why the recipes differ
Two pieces of European law do almost all of the work.
The first is a labelling rule. Annex V of Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 names six colours — tartrazine (E102), quinoline yellow (E104), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), ponceau 4R (E124) and allura red (E129). A food containing any of them must carry the colour's name or E number followed by the words “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children”. The colours remain legal. The sentence is mandatory.
The second is an outright ban. Titanium dioxide (E171) was removed from the EU list of permitted food additives by Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/63, which took effect on 7 February 2022 with a transition period ending 7 August 2022.
Now compare that list with the table. The dyes we found in the American versions are Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and Red 40 — which are E102, E110 and E129, all three from the Annex V list. A manufacturer selling a children's sweet in Europe can keep the dye and print the warning, or change the dye and print nothing. Most change the dye. In the United States no such sentence exists, so there is nothing to avoid.
The case that tests the explanation
An explanation that only fits the examples chosen to support it is not worth much. So here is the one that could have broken it.
Powerade Mountain Blast is coloured with Blue 1 in the United States — and with the same colour in the Netherlands, where the label calls it brilliant blue FCF. No reformulation, no difference.
That is what should happen. Blue 1 is E133, and E133 is not on the Annex V list: no warning is required, so there is no reason to change anything. If European recipes were driven by a general preference for natural colouring, Powerade would have been reformulated too. It was not. The line runs exactly where the regulation draws it.
What we did not find
Three results went against the story, and they belong here rather than in a footnote.
- American food is not systematically sweeter. Among pairs with sugar recorded on both sides, the US version was sweeter in 54% of cases — indistinguishable from chance.
- Heinz Yellow Mustard does not contain Yellow 5. The database said it did. The current US label reads: distilled white vinegar, mustard seed, water, salt, turmeric, spices, natural flavor. The colour comes from turmeric.
- Reese's Peanut Butter Cups do not contain titanium dioxide. Again the database said otherwise; the label lists milk chocolate, peanuts, sugar, dextrose, salt, TBHQ and citric acid.
Both products were dropped. They are named here because a reader deserves to know what the checking actually removed.
How this was built
The starting point was the September 2026 full export of Open Food Facts, 4.04 million records. We kept products flagged for the United States or for an EU country but not both, and matched them into pairs on brand plus normalised product name. That produced 10,898 pairs.
The important limit is coverage. Open Food Facts is filled in by volunteers, and an empty ingredient field means “nobody typed it”, not “nothing there”. Ingredients are recorded on the American side for 1,603 pairs and on the European side for 2,083 — but on both sides for only 504. Only those 504 can be compared at all. Within them, a synthetic dye appears in the US version alone 38 times and in the EU version alone 9 times.
We treat those numbers as a way of finding candidates, not as a statistic about the food supply, and we do not present them as one. Every pair in the table above was then verified by opening two current labels. That step removed about a third of the candidates outright, and removed nine more that turned out to be brands sold in only one market — a supermarket private label, or a US brand that happens to share a name with an unrelated European one.
What survives is small and checkable, which is the trade we chose. If you find an error in any line, tell us and we will correct it under our corrections policy.
Frequently asked questions
Are these colours banned in Europe?
Mostly no, and this is the detail that usually gets lost. Five of the six colours on the EU warning list — tartrazine, quinoline yellow, sunset yellow, carmoisine, ponceau 4R and allura red — are still legal in the European Union. What EU law requires is a sentence on the package: the colour, followed by "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children". Titanium dioxide is the exception: it was removed from the list of permitted food additives in 2022 and is genuinely banned.
Then why do the recipes differ at all?
Because the warning is expensive in a way the colour is not. A manufacturer choosing between printing that sentence on a children's sweet and switching to paprika extract will usually switch. The United States has no equivalent labelling requirement, so there is nothing to avoid and the original colour stays. The split we found runs along exactly that line, not along any difference in taste between the two markets.
Does this mean the American versions are unsafe?
That is not what this page shows, and we are not claiming it. The EU warning came out of a 2007 study at the University of Southampton on children's behaviour; European regulators responded with a label requirement rather than a ban, which tells you they considered the evidence serious but not conclusive. What we can show is narrower and checkable: two labels for the same brand, and the rule that explains why they differ.
Why only eight products?
Because everything else failed verification. We started from 10,898 brand-and-product pairs sold on both sides, but the ingredient list is filled in on both sides for only 504 of them. Of the candidates that survived that filter, roughly a third turned out to be wrong when we opened the actual label, and nine more were brands that exist in only one market — a private label or a US-only brand that happened to share a name. Eight pairs is what was left after checking every one by hand.
Is there a case where the colour is the same on both sides?
Yes, and it is the most useful result on this page. Powerade Mountain Blast is coloured with Blue 1 in the United States and with the same colour, listed as brilliant blue FCF, in the Netherlands. Blue 1 is not on the EU warning list, so there is no reason to reformulate — and the brand does not. If the difference were about European taste in general, Powerade would have changed too.
What about sugar — is American food sweeter?
We looked and could not show it. Among the pairs where sugar was recorded on both sides, the American version was sweeter in 54% of cases, which is close to a coin toss. We are reporting that because a negative result is part of the finding, not because it makes a better headline.
Related
Sources
Regulation
- Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 on food additives — Annex V lists the six colours requiring the additional statement.
- Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/63 — removal of titanium dioxide (E171) from the permitted list.
Labels, read September 2026
- Doritos Nacho Cheese — Giant Food (US), doritos.de.
- Haribo Goldbears — Walmart (US), HARIBO online shop (DE).
- Jelly Belly — Walmart (US), World of Sweets (DE).
- Sour Patch Kids — Walmart (US), World of Sweets (DE).
- Mountain Dew — Walmart (US), SPAR (NL); the sugar-free variant at Albert Heijn lists the same colouring.
- Takis Fuego — Walmart (US), Albert Heijn (NL).
- Fanta Orange — Walmart (US), Coca-Cola Germany.
- Tic Tac Orange — Walmart (US), Albert Heijn (NL).
- Powerade Mountain Blast — Walmart (US), Albert Heijn (NL).
This page compares what is printed on two labels and the rules behind them. It is not dietary advice and not a safety assessment. How we work.