Smarties - Colours

Colours

In one of the earlier ranges of colours, there was a light-brown Smartie. This was replaced in 1988 by the blue Smartie. Before 1958, the dark-brown Smarties had a plain-chocolate centre, while the light-brown one tasted of coffee. The orange Smarties contained, and still contain in the UK, orange-flavoured chocolate.

In 2006 it was announced that Nestlé were removing all artificial colourings from Smarties in the UK, owing to consumer concerns over the effect of chemical dyes on children's health. Nestlé decided to replace all synthetic dyes with natural ones, but, unable to source a natural blue dye, the blue Smarties were removed from circulation (which led to the common misbelief that only the blue Smarties would trigger hyperactivity in some children), and white Smarties were introduced in their place (despite originally not being allowed to make white ones due to their resemblance to medicinal tablets). White Smarties were later removed from the range, and blue Smarties were re-introduced in the UK in February 2008, using a natural blue dye derived from the cyanobacterium spirulina.

Artificial colouring was removed from Smarties in the Canadian market in March 2009. The new range includes yellow, brown, orange, red, green, pink and purple; the blue smarties were readded in May 2010.

Red Smarties were previously dyed with cochineal, a derivative of the Cochineal insect which is made by crushing female Cochineal insects. In the UK, they are now dyed using red cabbage. Despite this, they were not made suitable for vegetarians (as they contained whey that is produced using animal rennet) until November 2012