Phytolon and Ginkgo Bioworks Boost Natural Food Colors by Hitting Full-Project Milestone

• Replacing artificial dyes with natural colors has become a national priority, moved by consumer demand, regulation, and governmental pressure.
  
  
• Achieving this milestone—by increasing coloring efficiency and reducing costs—could unlock new market segments that are not well-supported by current natural food colors.
  
  
• The achievement grants Ginkgo with additional equity in Phytolon, and paves the way to explore further collaborations in the field of natural food colors.

Phytolon, a biotech-foodtech startup that offers natural food colors via fermentation of baker’s yeast, and Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA, “Ginkgo”), which is building the leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity, today announced the successful completion of the second development milestone of their multi-product collaboration to produce natural food colors and the resulting distribution of an equity milestone to Ginkgo.

The collaboration, which started in 2022, consists of development of yeast strains to produce two natural colors, aimed at offering the food industry vibrant, fully functional replacements to synthetic dyes under strong regulatory and legislation pressure.

Artificial food dyes are under growing pressure in the U.S., driven by regulatory action and rising health concerns. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has made removal of synthetic colors a priority, and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has announced an initiative to eliminate synthetic colors from the US food supply by the end of 2026, if not sooner. The FDA has already banned FD&C Red No. 3 due to cancer risks, and a growing number of states have passed or proposed bans on artificial dyes, especially in school meals. This momentum is accelerating the industry’s shift toward natural color alternatives.

After achieving the first development milestone (in early 2024) that unlocked the entire yellow-to-purple spectrum, Ginkgo leveraged its strong AI modeling expertise and its high-throughput screening platform to deliver strains with nearly 3-times higher production efficiency, enabling Phytolon to develop high-quality formulations that successfully address the desired coloring standards in multiple food categories such as baked goods, snacks seasoning, toppings & icings, confectionaries, dairy yogurts, and ice creams & frozen novelties.

Moreover, the improved production efficiency drives a significant reduction in the production costs and carbon footprint. Phytolon’s fermentation-based manufacturing process requires less energy and capital investment to reach high coloring efficiency compared with benchmark natural colors that rely on farming and extensive post-processing.

Phytolon’s “Beetroot Red” & “Prickly Pear Yellow” are expected to be available in U.S. markets upon approval by the FDA.

Upon meeting the second development milestone, Ginkgo will receive additional equity in Phytolon, reaping new benefits from the growing Ginkgo–Phytolon partnership and planting the seeds for follow-up projects that amplify Phytolon’s sustainable and cost-efficient offerings to the food coloring sector and the entire food industry.

This news appeared in: PRNewswire, Food Ingredients First