---
title: Blue Ambition
date: 2022-09-14T16:09:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://terp.umd.edu/blue-ambition"
section: Articles
---
# Blue Ambition

*September 14, 2022* — by [Sala Levin ’10](/authors/sala-levin-10)


- *Photo by Stephanie S. Cordle*

> Food Chemist Perks Up Palette of M&Ms, Other Candies

*blue M&M's*

That vibrant shade of blue in your bag of M&Ms comes from an unlikely source: red cabbage, by way of a Terp.

Rebecca Robbins Ph.D. ’95, a food chemist focusing on color at Mars Wrigley, made a groundbreaking discovery last year when she used a natural pigment called anthocyanin from the homely vegetable to create an alternative to the synthetic dye for cyan blue that had long been the industry standard.


*Rebecca Robbins headshot*




**Issue:** [Fall 2022](https://terp.umd.edu/editions/fall-2022)


**Types:** [Post-Grad](https://terp.umd.edu/category/post-grad)