Mars is giving operators an early look at its Sweets & Snacks Expo slate. New flavors, formats, and textures are coming, all framed around data-backed consumer insights. And with Mars Wrigley’s much-talked-about dye-free versions of Skittles, M&M’s, Starburst, and Extra Gum due to land sometime in 2026, the Sweets & Snacks Expo in Las Vegas would honestly be the perfect stage to debut them. Could Mars be holding a little surprise for the show floor?
TLDR
- Mars previews new candy formats and flavors ahead of the expo.
- The lineup leans into smaller, portion-controlled formats that fit a GLP-1 era of eating, plus protein and functional plays at the Kellanova booth.
- Texture and format innovation are central to Mars’s 2026 strategy.
- Mars Wrigley has promised dye-free versions of select Skittles, M&M’s, Starburst and Extra Gum SKUs sometime in 2026.
- The Sweets & Snacks Expo (May 19-21, Las Vegas) would be the natural debut moment.
- Operators can use this preview to plan shelf and assortment decisions.
Mars shared an early look at its upcoming lineup for the Mars Sweets & Snacks Expo with Snack & Bakery. The preview covers new flavors, formats, and textures across its confectionery portfolio. Mars says the launches are grounded in data-backed insights about where candy demand is moving.
What Mars Is Bringing to the Mars Sweets & Snacks Expo
Based on Mars’s own pre-show release, booth #2823 will feature M&M’s POP’d Caramel (the brand’s first freeze-dried candy), Twix Bits, Skittles Gummies Fuego, Skittles Sour Wild Berry, Starburst Sour, Sours by Extra and 5 Gum Evolution. Booth #3157 leans into the recently acquired Kellanova portfolio with RXBAR Protein Energy Bites, RXBAR High Protein Bars, and Cheez-It Crunch in two new flavors. The company is clearly leaning into texture and format differentiation — two levers that research consistently links to repeat purchase behavior.
It’s also a lineup that reads as genuinely consumer-aware. The smaller, more portion-controlled formats (POP’d, Bits, gummies, Sours) line up with how shoppers in the GLP-1 era are actually buying treats: smaller occasions, more often. The Kellanova booth’s protein and functional plays say the same thing from another angle. Mars frames its expo slate around meeting consumer demand, not just chasing novelty, and on those metrics, the show floor looks like a company tracking where eating is going.
The Dye-Free Question: Could a Surprise Be Coming?
Last July, Mars Wrigley North America announced that “in 2026” it would begin offering FD&C-color-free versions of four flagship products: M&M’s Chocolate, Skittles Original, Starburst Original fruit chews, and Extra Gum Spearmint. Company president Anton Vincent described the move as “consumer-focused and science-led,” and Mars said its teams were working toward a “fully effective, scalable solution.” The announcement landed amid mounting pressure from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push to phase out petroleum-based dyes, the FDA’s ban on Red No. 3, and dye-reduction commitments from Kraft Heinz, General Mills, PepsiCo, ConAgra, Hershey, McCormick, J.M. Smucker, and Nestlé USA.
Here’s the hopeful read: if those dye-free versions are really coming this year, the Sweets & Snacks Expo is the obvious place to show them off. It’s where category managers and retail buyers from every major chain walk the floor looking for what’s new. Mars’s official pre-show release doesn’t name dye-free SKUs, but the best brands tend to save a little something for the booth itself, and a surprise sampling of naturally colored M&M’s or Skittles would generate exactly the kind of buyer buzz Mars usually engineers for its expo presence.
The good news is that this one shouldn’t be a heavy lift. Mars already makes Skittles, M&M’s and Starburst with natural colorings (paprika extract, turmeric, beetroot, and copper chlorophyll )for the UK, EU and Canadian markets. The recipes exist. The supply chains exist. The technical lift to bring those formulations to US shelves is meaningfully smaller than a from-scratch reformulation, which is part of why the 2026 timeline felt credible when Mars first announced it.
So the open question heading into Las Vegas is a simple one: will dye-free Skittles and M&M’s actually show up at the booth? If they do, Mars gets a well-earned moment, and operators get a real product to plan around. And if not, hopefully it just means the company is saving it for an even bigger reveal later in the year.
What Operators Should Watch
Format innovation in candy is accelerating across the category. Brands that move on texture and portion variety tend to capture incremental occasions, not just swap share. Mars’s scale gives it distribution leverage most challengers lack, and its read on the GLP-1 and protein moments shows it can pivot quickly when consumer behavior shifts.
Clean-label momentum is reshaping what consumers accept in the snack aisle in much the same way. The Future of Food has tracked this shift across categories, from snack bars to gummies. Mars has a real opportunity at this year’s expo to show that ingredient evolution is moving as fast as flavor and format innovation, and the dye-free rollout, if it makes an appearance, would be the clearest signal yet that the company is reading that part of the room too.
Operators evaluating the Mars expo slate should weigh innovation velocity against ingredient evolution. The two are not always moving at the same speed. Source data from the expo will clarify how Mars positions these launches against a more discerning consumer base — and whether the dye-free promise from last summer is on track to become a 2026 reality or a 2027 conversation.
Source: Snack & Bakery. https://www.snackandbakery.com/articles/115743-mars-offers-sneak-peek-of-its-sweets-and-snacks-expo-slate
Source: Mars, Incorporated press release, May 12, 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mars-unveils-bold-innovations-and-shopper-insights-at-sweets–snacks-302768924.html
Source: ABC News / Good Morning America. https://abcnews.com/GMA/Food/mars-wrigley-announces-skittles-mms-candy-free-synthetic/story?id=124644924