Share it When Mars Inc. announced in 2016 that it would remove all artificial colors from its human food products in the next five years, Leonard Lerer saw an opportunity. Lerer, a medical doctor who had been an investor in food tech companies, had previously backed a startup that extracted a natural blue color from spirulina algae. And he had done the math: If Mars wanted to make its M&Ms a natural blue, Lerer estimated it would take five or six times all the spirulina in the world at that time. The candy company immediately found the color change to be a big challenge. Almost five years later, M&Ms in the United States still don't use natural blue coloring, Mars Wrigley said.