BATON ROUGE — A natural blue food coloring made from gardenia fruit has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

It is called Gardenia Blue and can now be used in foods like sports drinks, flavored waters, fruit drinks, teas, and both hard and soft candies.

This new color is part of a bigger push to phase out artificial dyes, which have raised concerns in recent years. Federal health officials want companies to move away from petroleum-based dyes. Pepsico, General Mills and Kraft Heinz have already announced plans to do just that.

Ninety percent of American ice cream brands plan to remove artificial dyes by 2028.

“When we first said we wanted to remove all nine petroleum-based food dyes from the U.S. food supply and do it soon, the naysayers said it would not be possible. And here we are weeks later, with an announcement that nearly 40 percent of food manufacturers have raised their hands to say 'yes, we agree.' There are no Democrat or Republican children in America; they are children,” FDA Commissioner Martin Makary said. “And so we can do this because we now have enough reason to be concerned about these petroleum-based food dyes."

The FDA says "Gardenia Blue" is the fourth naturally sourced color approved in the last two months. The others are galdieria extract blue, calcium phosphate, which is white, and butterfly pea flower extract for blues, purples, and greens.