It is July, and somewhere a brand just said the most expensive words in the building: we've got plenty of time.

It is July, and somewhere a brand just said the most expensive words in the building: we've got plenty of time.

The FDA phase-out lands at the end of 2026. Count the quarters that are left, and the runway is shorter than it feels.

Here is what "plenty of time" misses. Reformulating a color is not a week at the bench. It is finding the natural match, proving it holds through your heat and your shelf life, clearing the rule for your exact application, and locking a supplier who can deliver at volume, all before the deadline, while every other brand reaches for the same short list.

That last part is the trap. Demand for natural color is spiking right now. The teams that wait will be sourcing from a picked-over shelf, at a premium, on a clock.

Plenty of time is how you end up with no time. The brands moving now are not early. They are on schedule.

That is the runway DyeConverter was built to protect.