In-N-Out Burger has announced a major menu switch, changing the ingredients of a few of its beverages.
“In line with our ongoing dedication to offering customers the best-quality ingredients, we’ve eliminated artificial coloring from our Strawberry Shakes and Signature Pink Lemonade,” stated Patty Pena, a spokesperson for the California-based burger chain, to Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
It is unclear which specific dyes have been removed by the popular fast-food restaurant or if the coloring will be replaced.
Last month, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) alongside the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared a prohibition on petroleum-based synthetic dyes in the country’s food supply due to health concerns.
Petroleum-based synthetic dyes are used to add color to food and drug items.
These dyes are often present in breakfast cereals, candy, snacks, beverages, vitamins, and “other products targeted at children,” as detailed in an article called “The Artificial Food Dye Blues,” published by the National Library of Medicine.
The FDA recently announced the approval of three natural-source colors in food items: Galdieria extract blue, butterfly pea flower extract and calcium phosphate.
Pena told Fox News Digital the chain will be making a major change to a staple condiment as well.
“We’re also in the process of transitioning to an upgraded ketchup, which is made with real sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup,” Pena said.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called out sugar during the agency’s announcement on the artificial dye ban.
“Sugar is poison,” Kennedy said at the time. “And Americans need to know that it is poisoning us.”
California-based certified nutritionist Courtney Swan of Realfoodology told Fox News Digital that high-fructose corn syrup needs to be examined.
High-fructose corn syrup is a processed sweetener derived from corn starch, which Swan classifies as an “ultraprocessed, refined sugar.”
The syrup is “so far removed from its original source that it’s not even recognizable as something that would be considered food anymore,” Swan said.
Fox News Digital followed up with In-N-Out Burger for additional comment.
