Jan. 15 (UPI) — The federal government is banning the long-used synthetic food dye Red No. 3 after a linkage to cancer in test study animals, according to new information.
On Wednesday, the U.S. joined the European Union, other nations around the globe and a small number of states like Illinois and California in prohibiting the dye.
“The FDA cannot authorize a food additive or color additive if it has been found to cause cancer in human or animals,” Jim Jones, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s deputy director for human foods, wrote Wednesday in a statement.
Red No. 3 is the widely-used synthetic food dye that gives foods and drinks a bright, cherry-red color, health officials say.
Evidence via further studies has shown cancer in male laboratory rats when exposed to high levels.
According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, it’s still put in thousands of food products including candy, cereals, fruit cocktail cherries and strawberry-flavored milkshakes.
There are more than 3,200 products available for purchase with Red No. 3 as a listed ingredient, the Enviornmental Working Group added.
The FDA’s new action is “long overdue” and a “small step in the right direction, and hopefully signals a renewed effort by FDA to do its job despite the many barriers the food industry places in its way,” Dr. Jerold Mande, adjunct professor of nutrition at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told ABC 6 in Philadelphia.
A spokesperson for Just Born, the company that produces the popular Peep marshmallow products, stopped using red dye No. 3 last year in its production after Easter.
“At long last, the FDA is ending the regulatory paradox of Red 3 being illegal for use in lipstick, but perfectly legal to feed to children in the form of candy,” Dr. Peter Lurie, the CSPI’s president, told NBC.
Red Dye No. 3 was approved in 1907 for use in food. Made from petroleum, it’s otherwise known as “Erythrosine” in other nations.
The FDA more than 30 years ago banned the dye in cosmetics — also listed as “FD&C Red No. 3” — because of high doses found to cause cancer in animals.
It has also previously been banned or otherwise restricted in places like the European Union’s 27 member states, Japan and Australia.
California, meanwhile, became the first state to ban the dye along with other additives, and 10 other states have taken similar step. Illinois joined the list a year ago almost to the date.
FDA officials themselves had previously “determined that Red 3 causes cancer when eaten by animals in 1990 and said they would take steps to ban it in food, supplements and ingested drugs,” Thomas Galligan, principal scientist for food additives and supplements at the Washington, D.C.-based CSPI, told UPI at the end of 2022.
“So it’s not that they have an entrenched position that it’s safe,” he added.
Meanwhile, American companies utilizing the dye in food or ingested drugs will have a little more than a year to act.
“It’s more like they forgot or didn’t deem it high enough priority to take action on over the past three decades,” added Gilligan.
However, food products imported to the United States must comply with the new federal requirement.
The FDA gave respective dates of Jan. 15, 2027 and Jan. 18, 2028 to reformulate products for manufacturers and those using its dye product.
