Former Child Star Was Missing 10 Years Before Dying at 35, Ex-Manager Says

Q: What makes recreating M&M's classic blue and brown colors with natural dyes so difficult?

Recreating M&M’s classic blue and brown with natural dyes is difficult mainly because the natural blue substitute does not work well at industrial scale. Mars has found that spirulina, the leading natural option for blue, can gum up factory machinery, clog spray systems, and leave buildup on equipment. That makes it far harder to use reliably in high-volume candy production than artificial dyes. It is also much more expensive than many other natural colorants, adding another obstacle. The brown color is tied to the same problem. Brown shades in M&M’s color system rely in part on blue, so if the company cannot reproduce a stable, consistent blue, it also struggles to match the familiar brown consumers expect. There is also a formulation challenge beyond machinery. Natural dyes can be less consistent in shade, strength, and stability under heat and processing conditions. For a product as standardized as M&M’s, Mars has to match the exact look of two iconic colors across massive production runs and shelf life, not just create an approximate version. That is why Mars says blue and brown have been the hardest colors to replace, even as it moves ahead with naturally dyed M&M’s and aims to restore the full classic palette by 2028.

3 articles · Updated · The Daily Beast · Jun 19

A former manager said the former child star had been missing for 10 years before her death at age 35.
Friends and former colleagues spent years trying to locate her, according to the manager, framing her disappearance as a long-running concern rather than a sudden break.
The report offers little additional detail on where she had been or the circumstances leading to her death, leaving major questions unresolved.