May 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration

said on Friday that it had granted permissions to three new

color additives, marking them as safe to use in food products

and expanding the range of natural-source colors available to

manufacturers.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA

Commissioner Marty Makary said last month that the agency

plans to remove

synthetic food dyes from the U.S. food supply by revoking

the authorizations of some and working with the industry to

voluntarily remove others.

"For too long, our food system has relied on synthetic,

petroleum-based dyes that offer no nutritional value and pose

unnecessary health risks," Kennedy had said in a statement.

The health regulator approved Galdieria extract blue - a

blue color derived from the unicellular red algae Galdieria

sulphuraria - for use in non-alcoholic beverages, fruit juices,

candy, breakfast cereal coatings, ice cream and frozen dairy

desserts, among others. The petition was submitted by the French

company Fermentalg.

It also approved butterfly pea flower extract, a blue color

that is produced through the water extraction of the plant's

dried flower petals. This helps achieve a range of shades that

include bright blues, intense purple and natural greens and is

already approved for use in fruit and vegetable juices,

alcoholic beverages and ready-to-drink tea.

Friday's approval expands its use for coloring

ready-to-eat cereal, crackers, snack mixes and some chips.

The FDA also approved calcium phosphate, which imparts a

white color, for use in ready-to-eat chicken products, white

candy melts, doughnut sugar and sugar for coated candy.