By Piper Rutherford | Staff Writer
The FDA found Red Dye No. 3 to cause thyroid cancer in male rats, according to a New York Times report. Now, all Red Dye No. 3 products for consumption are required to be off the shelves by mid-January of 2027.
Some food products that contain Red No. 3 include holiday favorites like Peeps, conversation hearts and candy corn as well as popular treats like strawberry milk, maraschino cherries, bubblegum, popsicles and Pez.
This widespread consumption of Red No. 3 is more than alarming.
The Associated Press found in a 2021 FDA report that more than 200,000 pounds of Red No. 3 were used in food products that year. What is more concerning is that the FDA banned the use of Red No. 3 in 1990 for makeup products like blush and lipstick, but continued to allow Red No. 3 to have a large presence in the American diet.
The FDA is far too late to the game when it comes to banning Red No. 3, which, according to the New York Times, was first approved for use in food products in 1907.
During this span of 118 years, the Washington Post found that Europe, Australia and New Zealand all banned Red No. 3, along with other countries in Asia, like China and Japan.
Rather than using the dye to enhance the vibrancy of color in food products, these countries replaced the dye with natural food coloring from plants, like beets and red cabbage.
And closer to home, California enacted the California Food Safety Act in 2023 to ban four food and drink ingredients linked to life-threatening illnesses and diseases. This includes brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromates, propylparaben and Red No. 3.
But even after all of this, it still took the FDA two more years to put an expiration date on Red No. 3.
Now, food organizations like the International Association of Color Manufacturers are biting back in retaliation.
A spokesperson from the IACM claimed that there is not a significant risk to humans who consume food products containing Red No. 3. This statement is based on the FDA’s estimation that the dye has the potential to cause cancer in about one in 100,000 people, according to the New York Times.
When it comes to cancer, any risk is too high, especially when that risk is preventable.
Now, it appears as though food manufacturers who profit off Red No. 3 will come to a head against President Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long been an opponent of artificial dyes.
Politics and capitalistic ambitions aside, the FDA has made a step in the right direction when it comes to this ban, for the sake of all Americans’ health.
