Johnny-on-the-Spot …by John Foster …

The M&M’s candy people are launching a new product this August.

It’s the 85th anniversary of M&M’s and this new line will be candies made without artificial dyes.

As part of the company’s “Make American Healthy Again” campaign (Clever!), the company will be phasing out synthetic dyues.

The new treats will come in red, orange, yellow and green and be sold exclusively on Amazon.

Why no blues and browns in the new line?

Those colors could not be created at a “reasonable cost” with natural ingredients.

Why the change?

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has been urging the nation’s food companies to eliminate artificial dyes in their products.

I wonder if Kennedy ‘roached” his throat by gargling with something containing an artificial dye.

However, the “regular” M&M’s, with browns and blues, will still be available on store shelves.

M & M had thoughts of dropping blues and browns and replacing them with purple and pink but that idea was scrapped.

In 2016, the candy company pledged to remove artificial dyes but later reversed that plan when it was determined that customers weren’t concerned with the synthetic dyes.

Now, red went away from 1976 through 1987 to avoid “customer confusion” following a Russian study linking red dye to cancer.

I find it ironic that it was a “Russian” study that connected red dye with cancer.

Do you remember, as i do, from my elementary school days about avoiding the “green” ones?

By the way, M&M’s introduced a set of “diverse spokes-candies” but the company got slammed for being “too woke”.

The candy’s slogan “melt in your mouth, not in your hand” has been around since 1954.

The secret is candy shell which melts just below the typical human body temperatures of 98.6 degrees.

That body temperature was title of a 1967 million-selling record by Keith.

He was born James Barry Keefer and later became known as Bazza Keefer.

Actually, “Bazza” was the name of Keith’s Mom.

M&M’s were invented so soldiers could have chocolate without getting all sticky and gooey from melting chocolate.

They were the first candies in space, aboard the Columbia Space Shuttle in 1981.

M&M’s were the official snack food of the 1984 Olympic games and in 2000, became the official candy of the New Millenium.

The “plain” M&M’s showed up in 1941 followed by the M&M peanuts in 1954.

Those are one of my favorite travel treats.

Eat them one at a time, allowing the hard, candy shell to dissolve before the chocolate malts away and I get to the peanut.

It’s a great way to pass the time on a long- boring road trip.

How about that M&M mark on each candy?

It represents Forrest E. Mars and Murrie, the son of the Hershey president.

The “M” was to help consumers differentiate between M&M’s and “inferior imitators”.

On the 75th anniversary of the candy, a 70 pound M&M was created.

It was about the size of a basketball and was made from thousands of standard M&M’s.

You’ve probably seen “talking” M&M’s on TV commercials.

“Ms Brown, the original milk chocolate, debuted during the 2012 Super Bowl.

She says she’s “not bossy. Just the boss.”

She also says her worst quality is “being able to pretend I have one”.

A lady with attitude.

I like it!

Currently “red” is voiced by Billy West and “yellow” is voiced by J.K. Simmons.

Remember in the “ET” movies when the alien used M&M’s to communicate with his human buddy, Elliot?

A standard checkout counter-sized bag (1.69oz) of regular M&M’s contains 56-58 candies but since the peanuts add weight, that bag only contains 20-22 treats.

So, M&M’s will be “evolving” but thanks to the stubborn browns and blues, we’ll still have the originals, along with red, yellow, green and orange on the store shelves after August.

No disrespect, Secretary Kennedy, but I figure I’m at greater risk of dying from a gunshot would in Chicago than from an artificial food coloring.

Or driving to the store to buy a bag of M&M’s.

Have you seen some of those drivers out there?

There’s nothing artificial about that.