'If It Isn't Necessary, We Don't Do It' — The Strict Motto Aldi Uses To Produce The Best Food It Can

Multinational grocery chain Aldi is known for a lot of things. Its famed status as a discount retailer is probably the first thing that comes to mind, which it manages to maintain because around 90% of Aldi's products are house brands. The company keeps a keen eye on the ingredients that go into that massive number of proprietary items. The ethos "if it isn't necessary, we don't do it" does not just apply to its well-known absence of cart wranglers.

This motto gets at the things that matter most, including what you may or may not want to consume with your Nature's Nectar orange juice or Simms beef jerky. Those are just two of Aldi's private label products, which it promises to keep free from partially hydrogenated oils, added monosodium glutamate, and many synthetic colors. "Keeping things simple at Aldi comes down to one objective — giving you high-quality products while helping you save on groceries," its website further explains.

If you're familiar with any artificial food coloring, it's probably Red Dye No. 3, which the United States Food and Drug Administration banned in 2025 due to potential health risks. That, plus Red Dye No. 3's absence of nutritional value — and anything else besides its crimson hue — certainly slots it in that unnecessary category. Aldi actually cut the stuff, which has been known to appear in jerky varieties elsewhere, all the way back in 2015.

The operative word amid some of the elements on Aldi's no-no list is "added." That 2015 MSG ban specified "added" MSG, rather than that which naturally occurs in plenty of foodstuffs. You still find MSG in foods such as tomatoes and cheese, where it exists as a matter of course. It's also worth noting that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is okay with MSG, and plenty of recipes actually benefit from a bit of the flavor enhancer. Aldi's decision to disallow MSG as an additive, however, better helps those who prefer to totally avoid it.

Aldi didn't stop its focus on ingredients in 2015; it plans to cut 44 more ingredients by 2027. Those will include lye, talc, and lactylated esters of mono and diglycerides. Grandma's recipe cards might look a little different, but we're guessing that nobody considers these "necessary," either.