Toxin Free USA Campaigns to Prevent Products of Genetic Engineering to Be Labeled “Natural”

New Fairfield, CT, April 3, 2026 —  Public interest nonprofit GMO/Toxin Free USA (TFUSA) succeeded in delaying a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposal to allow a novel, synthetic food dye produced by Phytolon Ltd. to enter the U.S. food supply and be labeled as “natural.”

Phytolon’s synthetic food color, Beetroot Red, is produced through a genetic engineering technique called Synthetic Biology, or SynBio, and often referred to as “precision fermentation,” or misleadingly as only “fermentation.”

On February 6, 2026, the FDA issued a Final Order for Phytolon’s color additive petition to allow the synthetic food dye to enter the food market by “amending the color additive regulations to provide for the safe use of beetroot red for the coloring of human foods generally.” The order would have gone into effect March 23, 2026.