Yes, the FDA just banned RED #3, January 15th, 2025. What does this actually mean?
BUT THIS DOES NOT MEAN IT HAPPENS TODAY.
Food manufacturers will have until January 15, 2027 to reformulate their products. Companies that make ingested drugs, such as dietary supplements, will get an additional year.
Red #3 has been banned in cosmetics, makeup, and externally applied pharmaceuticals since 1990. The FDA made this decision based on 20 years of research based on the role of FD&C Red #3 in causing cancer.
It took them until this past Wednesday to add food/drugs in the mix.
In fact, the tests that FDA relied upon to conclude that FD&C Red No. 3 caused cancer were feeding studies, and so are particularly relevant to ingested uses of FD&C Red No. 3.
This is a great first step, but I can’t help but wonder... why suddenly now? They have known this information for DECADES.
And no, I don’t think this is solely because of MAHA/RFKJ. I think there is much more to it.
Erythrosine -- which you’ll see on some ingredient lists as “FD&C Red No. 3” -- is a synthetic dye made from petroleum that gives foods and drinks a bright, cherry-red color (or even shades of brown and orange). For decades, the FDA has been aware of multiple studies showing that red dye 3 can cause cancer in animals. When lab rates were fed high doses of the dye over long periods, they developed tumors in their thyroids, the studies found.
Okay, but why WAS it allowed in food but not cosmetics?
The short answer: Bureaucracy, it seems.
As the recent petition to the FDA put it: “There is not scientific or public health justification for permitting the use of FD&C Red No. 3 dye in food while prohibiting [the dye] in cosmetics and externally applied drugs.” But that changed.
I think it’s largely the result of some complicated internal processes at the FDA. The list of color additives the FDA allows in food, supplements, and ingested drugs (like pills and liquid medicines) is separate from the list for cosmetics and applied drugs (like prescription lotions). That means the FDA has had to make decisions about the safety of each type of use at different times.
Currently, this carcinogenic chemical can be found in over 2,900 food items, including candies, cakes, drinks, & particularly seasonal items.
In October 2023, California became the first US state to ban its use in food, superseding the FDA’s current rule that allows small amounts in foods as a color additive. A number of US states have introduced legislation to follow suit.
Food safety experts and advocates say that while it likely poses risks to people of all ages, young children may be the most vulnerable. Young children are the ones that are most affected, because of their small body weight, and because they are exposed to much more artificial dye in food.
OVER 43% OF PRODUCTS MARKETED TO KIDS ARE ARTIFICIALLY DYED.
[According to the FDA’s own estimates, American children ages 2 to 5 end up consuming twice as much red dye 3 as the general population on a body weight basis.]
What foods and medicines contain Red 3?
Some things that contain it might not be surprising -- like the strawberry flavors of Nesquik, Pediasure, Ensure, and Yoo Hoo. But there are also others you might not expect, like the cherries in Dole fruit cups, Vigo saffron rice, Wise onion rings, and vegetarian bacon by Morning Star Farms.
It also shows up in some medicine and supplements, like cough syrup and gummy vitamins, for instance. In a great irony, given its potential link to inattentivness and hyperactivity in kids, red dye 3 is an inactive ingredient in Vyvanse, which is a medication often prescribed for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder.
Science is slow, logic is fast.
There is no reason for dyes to be in our food – it’s non nutritive and we’ve already found natural replacements. Red 3 is not as widely used as Red 40, but is still incorporate in almost 3,000 products on shelves. Many brands have been slowly removing it for years and that’s why you’ll still see some older versions still on shelves.
They are removing it NOW, 30 YEARS AFTER it was linked to cancer in animals...
At least we are headed in the right direction, but we still have work to do (I’m looking at YOU Red 40).
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