General Mills said Wednesday it has removed artificial colors from all its U.S. cereals, including Lucky Charms and Trix.
The Minneapolis company has shifted to fruit- and vegetable-based dyes as well as colors derived from spices like turmeric and paprika to give its cereals their customary bright colors.
“This achievement reflects how we are evolving with consumer needs while continuing to offer food that tastes great, delivers quality and provides value,” said Bethany Quam, General Mills’ president of cereal, in a statement.
General Mills said 90% of its U.S. retail products are now free of artificial dyes. Products that still contain artificial colors, like some Betty Crocker cake mixes and Fruit Roll-Ups, will transition to natural dyes by the end of 2027, the company said.
General Mills is the second big cereal maker to announce a transition to natural dyes. WK Kellogg, which makes Froot Loops and Apple Jacks, said earlier this month that it will remove artificial colors from all its U.S. cereals by the end of this year.
Health advocates have long called for the removal of artificial dyes from foods, citing studies indicating they can cause neurobehavioral problems, including hyperactivity and attention issues, in some children, though the findings have been mixed.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says approved dyes are safe and that “most children have no adverse effects” from them. But the agency says some children may be sensitive to artificial dyes. Last year, the FDA banned one petroleum-based dye, Red 3, because some studies suggested it caused cancer in lab rats.
General Mills removed artificial dyes from Trix in 2015 but brought them back two years later, saying U.S. customers missed the bright colors.
But pressure from consumers and politicians has grown since then. President Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has urged food companies to phase out petroleum-based artificial dyes. Last summer, General Mills signed an agreement with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton saying it would remove synthetic dyes from all its products by the end of 2027.
Retailers are also forcing companies to act. Earlier this year, Target said it would stop selling cereals that contain artificial colors by the end of May. Walmart has also said it will remove artificial colors from its store brands by January 2027.
FILE-This is a shelf of General Mills Lucky Charms cereal at a market in Homestead, Pa., on Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
TORONTO (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump says his country does not need Canada. But every day, roughly 4 million barrels of Canadian crude oil flow south, helping fuel American cars, trucks and airplanes and supply U.S. industry.
And oil is only the beginning.
Canada also supplies aluminum, potash to U.S. farms and parts for an auto industry built on both sides of the border.
“WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!” Trump posted this week, repeating his long-running claim.
Yet Trump has imposed a 50% tariff on Canadian aluminum while acknowledging this week that the United States badly needs the metal.
“This country desperately needs aluminum,” Trump said. “We don’t have it. We get it all from Canada for the most part, and we need it badly.”
The contradiction underscores how deeply the two economies remain intertwined — and how much could be at stake if Trump’s trade war reaches more of the energy, materials and supply chains that the U.S. still relies on Canada to provide.
Canada is the second-largest U.S. trading partner after Mexico, and energy is at the heart of that relationship.
The two countries exchanged about $872 billion in goods and services last year. Canadian crude imports equal nearly 20% of total U.S. petroleum consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, part of the Department of Energy.
Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University, said Trump’s claim that the U.S. doesn't need Canada is “absolutely false,” citing U.S. reliance on Canadian oil and natural gas and deeply integrated industries such as autos.
Much of Canada’s crude flows to Midwest refineries built to process its heavy oil into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Energy also explains much of the U.S. trade deficit with Canada, which Trump frequently cites as evidence of an unfair relationship.
The White House this week portrayed the relationship in starkly negative terms, saying Canada had taken roughly $50 billion a year from the U.S. over the past decade. Much of that gap reflects U.S. purchases of Canadian energy, which helps power the U.S. economy. And Canada's heavy crude typically trades at a discount to U.S. benchmark oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Energy more than accounted for last year’s $48.3 billion goods deficit. Without energy, the U.S. would have run a trade surplus.
After trade talks collapsed last Friday, the U.S. imposed 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. The measures cover only about 5% of Canadian exports to the U.S. and exclude energy.
For now, using oil as a weapon in trade negotiations remains a remote possibility. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith strongly rejected using oil as leverage, saying she could not think of “a more disastrous policy decision” than cutting off or taxing Alberta crude exports to the U.S. because it could devastate Canada’s economy.
But former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said Canada should not rule out export taxes on oil, fuel or potash if Trump escalates further.
Such retaliation “would affect Republicans who drive F-150s and lay fertilizer on their farm fields,” Kenney said.
“They should be mindful that if they really want to escalate, it will not end well for the American economy two months before midterm elections,” he said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford cited Canadian commodities as leverage, accusing Trump of “putting out fake news” about the U.S. not needing Canada. He called potash used by U.S. farmers “one of the most powerful tools we have” and said Washington would have to turn to suppliers such as Russia if Canada redirected shipments.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe rejected that approach, saying his province “cannot and will not support” export tariffs on resources. He said Saskatchewan is on track to supply about half the world’s potash and warned that taxing exports could cost Canadian jobs, raise fertilizer prices and push U.S. buyers toward suppliers such as Belarus.
“This would be a tremendously flawed policy on behalf of Canadians,” Moe said.
Moe has backed a more targeted retaliation, saying Saskatchewan — one of only two provinces that had not removed existing U.S. alcohol from store shelves — will impose a 50% reciprocal charge on U.S. alcohol, starting on Sept. 8.
Kenney stopped short of advocating an export tax on oil, and Béland said such a move would probably be “a very divisive issue politically in provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan.”
That underscores the limits of Canada’s leverage: measures aimed at hurting U.S. industries could also hurt Canadian producers and strain political unity at home.
Canada has long been the dominant foreign source of aluminum for the U.S. Smelting the metal requires enormous amounts of electricity, giving hydro-rich Canada a major advantage.
Prime Minister Mark Carney told a New York business audience in May that Canadian aluminum exports to the U.S. are “the energy equivalent of 10 Hoover dams.”
American farmers are even more dependent on Canada for potash, a fertilizer essential to crops such as corn and soybeans. More than 80% of U.S. potash imports come from Canada.
Even Trump’s ambassador has disputed the idea that the U.S. needs nothing from its neighbor.
“America has a tremendous amount of things where we have a need,” Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said in June. Pointing to Canadian fertilizer supplies, he added: “We need potash.”
Then there are cars.
Canada and the U.S. have built an integrated auto industry in which parts can cross the border up to six times before final assembly, according to the Canadian government.
Trump said Monday that his administration would impose 50% tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks and auto parts starting Jan. 1, 2027 — after the November midterm elections.
That means a tariff aimed at Canada can land in Michigan or Ohio. Tax Canadian aluminum and an American automaker may pay more for metal. Tax Canadian parts and the cost of assembling an American vehicle can rise.
Artificial intelligence is driving a surge in electricity demand. Canada supplied 85% of U.S. electricity imports in 2023, according to the Canada Energy Regulator, and Carney says the country needs to double the capacity of its electricity grid by 2050 through major hydroelectric and nuclear projects.
Carney said Canada could help the U.S. "meet exploding demand to power AI."
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, center, speaks at the Davie shipyard in Levis, Quebec on Monday, Aug. 24, 2026. Joël Lightbound, Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement, left, Quebec Premier Christine Frechette, and Quebec Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy and Minister Responsible for Maritime Strategy Bernard Drainville look on. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press via AP)
FILE - The oil tanker Palanca Rio passes by Cape Elizabeth, Maine, on April 2, 2025, after a two-day voyage from St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
FILE - Workers prepare extruded aluminum product for packaging at Magna Aluminum Profile's fully electric powered extrusion facility in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec, Canada, on Sept. 3, 2025. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
