By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, Associated Press Business Writer

Kraft Heinz will be pulling certain artificial dyes from its U.S. products starting in 2027 and will no longer roll out new products with the dyes.

The move comes nearly two months after U.S. health officials said that they would urge foodmakers to phase out petroleum-based artificial colors in the nation’s food supply.

Kraft Heinz said Tuesday that almost 90% of its U.S. products already don’t contain food, drug & cosmetic colors, but that the products that do still use the dyes will have them removed by the end of 2027. FD&C colors are synthetic additives that are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in food, drugs and cosmetics.

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Kraft Heinz said that many of its U.S. products that still use the FD&C colors are in its beverage and desserts categories, including certain products sold under brands including Crystal Light, Kool Aid, Jell-O and Jet Puffed.

The company said that it will instead use natural colors for the products.

“The vast majority of our products use natural or no colors, and we’ve been on a journey to reduce our use of FD&C colors across the remainder of our portfolio,” Pedro Navio, North America President at Kraft Heinz, said in a statement.

Kraft Heinz stripped artificial colors, flavors and preservatives from its macaroni and cheese in 2016 and said it has never used artificial dyes in its ketchup.

The company plans to work with licensees of its brands to encourage them to remove the dyes.

In April Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said at a news conference that the agency would take steps to eliminate the synthetic dyes by the end of 2026, largely by relying on voluntary efforts from the food industry.

Health advocates have long called for the removal of artificial dyes from foods, citing mixed studies indicating they can cause neurobehavioral problems, including hyperactivity and attention issues, in some children. The FDA has maintained that the approved dyes are safe and that “the totality of scientific evidence shows that most children have no adverse effects when consuming foods containing color additives.”

The FDA currently allows 36 food color additives, including eight synthetic dyes. In January, the agency announced that the dye known as Red 3 — used in candies, cakes and some medications — would be banned in food by 2027 because it caused cancer in laboratory rats.

Artificial dyes are used widely in U.S. foods. In Canada and in Europe — where synthetic colors are required to carry warning labels — manufacturers mostly use natural substitutes. Several states, including California and West Virginia, have passed laws restricting the use of artificial colors in foods.

Many U.S. food companies are already reformulating their foods, according to Sensient Colors, one of the world’s largest producers of food dyes and flavorings. In place of synthetic dyes, foodmakers can use natural hues made from beets, algae and crushed insects and pigments from purple sweet potatoes, radishes and red cabbage.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Retail sales fell sharply in May as consumers pulled back after a sharp increase in spending in March to get ahead of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on nearly all imports.

Sales at retail stores and restaurants dropped 0.9% in May, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, after a decline of 0.1% in April. The figure was pulled down by a steep drop in auto sales, after Americans ramped up their car-buying in March to get ahead of Trump’s 25% duty on imported cars and car parts. Excluding autos, sales fell 0.3%.

The sales drop comes after sharp declines in consumer confidence this year. Still, inflation has cooled steadily and unemployment remains low, which could fuel steady spending in the coming months, as the economy has remained mostly solid.

A category of sales that excludes volatile sectors such as gas, cars, and restaurants rose last month by 0.4%, a sign that consumers are still spending on some discretionary items.

FILE – Shoppers pass a Victoria’s Secret store at a shopping mall in Scranton, Pa., May 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, file)

Yet many categories saw sharp declines. Car sales plunged 3.5%, while sales at home and garden centers dropped 2.7%. They fell 0.6% at electronics and appliance stores and 0.7% at grocery stores. There were some bright spots: Sales rose 0.9% at online retailers, 0.8% at clothing stores, and 1.2% at furniture stores.

Sales at restaurants and bars, a closely watched indicator of discretionary spending, fell 0.9% in May, though that followed a solid gain of 0.8% in April.

It is a difficult time for retailers, many of whom built up large inventories this spring after Trump warned that he would impose widespread import taxes. Traffic at the port in Los Angeles has fallen sharply in recent weeks, suggesting fewer goods are entering the United States.

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Some consumer products companies say they are seeing the impact of tariffs on their own costs and sales.

Paul Cosaro, CEO of Picnic Time, Inc, which makes picnic accessories like baskets, coolers, and folding chairs, said that orders from retailers are down as much as 40% this summer compared with a year ago. His company sells to a variety of stores like Target and Williams-Sonoma.

Cosaro noted that some stores have been cautious because they’re not sure how shoppers will react to higher prices. Some cancelled orders because Cosaro couldn’t tell them how much the new prices would be due to all the uncertainty. Roughly, 80% of the company’s goods are made in China, with the rest in India and Vietnam.

The company, founded roughly 40 years ago and based in Moorpark, California, was forced to raise prices on average from 11% to 14% for this summer selling season, Cosaro said.

The company has implemented a hiring freeze because of all the extra tariff costs, he added. So far this year the company, which employs from 70 to 100 people, has had to pay $1 million in tariffs. A year ago at this time, the bill was a third of that amount.

D’Innocenzio reported from New York.

President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that he would likely extend a deadline for TikTok’s Chinese owner to divest the popular video sharing app.

Trump had signed an order in early April to keep TikTok running for another 75 days after a potential deal to sell the app to American owners was put on ice.

“Probably yeah, yeah,” he responded when asked by reporters on Air Force One whether the deadline would be extended again.

“Probably have to get China approval but I think we’ll get it. I think President Xi will ultimately approve it.”

He indicated in an interview last month with NBC that he would be open to pushing back the deadline again. If it happens, it would be third time that the deadline has been extended.

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court in San Francisco is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday on whether the Trump administration should return control of National Guard troops to California after they were deployed following protests in Los Angeles over immigration raids.

The hearing comes after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request by the administration last week to temporarily pause a lower court order that directed President Donald Trump to return control of the soldiers to the governor who filed a lawsuit over the deployment.

The three-judge panel is set to hear oral arguments via video starting at noon, and protests outside the downtown San Francisco court are expected.

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U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco ruled last week that the Guard deployment was illegal and exceeded Trump’s statutory authority. It applied only to the National Guard troops and not the Marines, who were also deployed to LA.

The Trump administration argued the deployment was necessary to restore order and protect federal buildings and officers.

In his lawsuit, Gov. Gavin Newsom accused the president of inflaming tensions, breaching state sovereignty and wasting resources. The governor calls the federal government’s decision to take command of the state’s National Guard “illegal and immoral.”

Newsom filed the suit following days of unrest as demonstrators protested against federal immigration raids across the city.

The judge ruled the Trump violated the use of Title 10, which allows the president to call the National Guard into federal service when the country “is invaded,” when “there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government,” or when the president is unable “to execute the laws of the United States.”

Breyer, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, said in his ruling that what has been happening in Los Angeles does not meet the definition of a rebellion.

“The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of ‘rebellion,’” he wrote. “Individuals’ right to protest the government is one of the fundamental rights protected by the First Amendment, and just because some stray bad actors go too far does not wipe out that right for everyone.”

The National Guard hasn’t been activated without a governor’s permission since 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.