Public Health News Catch-all | Red Dye No. 3 to be banned in USA

nycfan

nycfan

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The Food and Drug Administration may soon banartificial dye Red No. 3, thanks to the work of many public health advocates and lobbyists. The petroleum-based dye, found in thousands of products, including candies, snacks and sodas, has been linked to thyroid cancer in rats and behavioral issues in children.


The FDA has been considering the ban since 2022 and is expected to announce a decision any day. Growing concerns about the dye have already led the state of California to ban it, a law that will take effect in 2027. In addition, Red Dye No. 3 has been banned or severely restricted in many countriesincluding Japan, China and the European Union….”

www.forbes.com

What A Potential FDA Red Dye No. 3 Ban Could Mean For Public Health

The FDA may soon ban artificial dye Red No. 3, thanks to the work of many public health advocates. Here is how this could positively affect public health.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com

 
Forbes continued

“… Since its approval for use in food in 1969, the FDA has reviewed the dye several times to ensure it met the agency’s safety requirements. Despite this, the administration did ban the substance in 1990 for cosmetic use and for the application of medical ointments. The FDA has since concluded that Red No. 3 is safe in amounts used in food.

Some scientists disagree. Research has shown that children who drank juices containing food dyes experienced a small but significant increase in hyperactivity based on parental reports. In addition, decade-old studies demonstrated Red No. 3 could cause thyroid cancer in laboratory rats. …”
 
nycfan said:
Forbes continued

“… Since its approval for use in food in 1969, the FDA has reviewed the dye several times to ensure it met the agency’s safety requirements. Despite this, the administration did ban the substance in 1990 for cosmetic use and for the application of medical ointments. The FDA has since concluded that Red No. 3 is safe in amounts used in food.

Some scientists disagree. Research has shown that children who drank juices containing food dyes experienced a small but significant increase in hyperactivity based on parental reports. In addition, decade-old studies demonstrated Red No. 3 could cause thyroid cancer in laboratory rats. …”
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It is sort of amazing what almost all of us willingly put into our body thinking its safe based on very little testing. Medicines go through years and sometimes decades of safety research. That really doesn't happen with food or supplements. And it works out most of the time until it doesn't.

This came about due to a 6-decade loophole that Congress hasn't bothered closing. 60 years ago, Congress passed a law that said additives that were generally recognized as safe (GRAS) were exempt from review and they let manufacturers decide what met that standard. They were meaning things like salt and vinegar but then companies started coming up with artificial additives And classifying them as safe whenever it went into a new food. In the last 25 years or so, 99% of additives in foods have not been tested. Kind of scary when you think about it.

www.pewtrusts.org

Fixing the Oversight of Chemicals Added to Our Food

The Pew Charitable Trusts conducted a comprehensive assessment of the federal food additives regulatory program. Pew examined food additive issues in partnership with the food industry, the public interest community, and the federal government. This report summarizes our findings and provides...
www.pewtrusts.org www.pewtrusts.org
 
Is it my imagination or was this banned sometime in the past as well. Didn't red M/Ms disappear at some point in the late 70s/early 80s.
 
CRHeel94 said:
Is it my imagination or was this banned sometime in the past as well. Didn't red M/Ms disappear at some point in the late 70s/early 80s.
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If it's your imagination, then our imaginations are alike. My sister spent her entire working career as a chemist in the Food & Dye Division of FDA. I remember her telling me to avoid "Red Dye #3" in the early 1970's. When I found out how ubiquitous Red Dye #3 was, I recall thinking, "How am I going to avoid something that is pretty much in everything I eat?"

ETA: Erythrosine - Wikipedia
 
Okay, I went and looked it up to make sure I wasn't crazy. Red M&Ms did indeed disappear for about a decade from 1976 to 1986. Curiously, they didn't have Red No2 (the dye that scared people back then).

www.livescience.com

Why Were Red M&M's Discontinued for a Decade?

A health scare caused red M&M's to disappear from stores for more than a decade. Life's Little Mysteries explains why the chocolate candies were eventually reintroduced.
www.livescience.com www.livescience.com
 
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My mom was pretty uptight about not letting us eat too much food coloring when I was a kid, so we weren't allowed to get M&Ms in the 70s (probably because of the red dye story). One year for his 6th or 7th birthday, my brother asked for a batman birthday cake. So my mom got this kit and she and I made the batman birthday cake per the instructions. The kit included white icing and little vials of food coloring, with directions how much to use of each for the gray and blue in the batman costume. We spent a while doing this, finished it and my mom looked at it and declared that was too much food coloring to eat. So he immediately dumped the entire thing in the trash. I was pissed mainly because why waste time making it first? Why waste the cake?

At some point I started pointing out how many thing she had deemed fine just by appearance still listed a bunch of food coloring on the label and she didn't get less militant about the brightly colored foods (like peeps) but did relent a bit so I got to eat Fruit Loops.
 
nycfan said:
My mom was pretty uptight about not letting us eat too much food coloring when I was a kid, so we weren't allowed to get M&Ms in the 70s (probably because of the red dye story). One year for his 6th or 7th birthday, my brother asked for a batman birthday cake. So my mom got this kit and she and I made the batman birthday cake per the instructions. The kit included white icing and little vials of food coloring, with directions how much to use of each for the gray and blue in the batman costume. We spent a while doing this, finished it and my mom looked at it and declared that was too much food coloring to eat. So he immediately dumped the entire thing in the trash. I was pissed mainly because why waste time making it first? Why waste the cake?

At some point I started pointing out how many thing she had deemed fine just by appearance still listed a bunch of food coloring on the label and she didn't get less militant about the brightly colored foods (like peeps) but did relent a bit so I got to eat Fruit Loops.
Click to expand...
"Save the Fruit Loops, save the world!"
 
My wife and I definitely noticed a significant increase in our son’s hyperactivity when he consumed things with red dye when he was younger.
 
From what I heard from my kids when we were discussing this news last night, it's not going to be much of an issue with the younger generations. They already think of Red Dye #3 as something akin to a measles blanket.
 
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