[News] FDA may finally ban artificial red dye from beverages, candy and other foods

[Aronus]

The Food and Drug Administration may finally move to ban artificial red food dye, the coloring found in beverages, snacks, cereals and candies.

At the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee meeting Thursday, Jim Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for human foods, said it’s been over a decade since the safety of the synthetic color additive Red No. 40 has been re-evaluated. “With Red 3, we have a petition in front of us to revoke the authorization board, and we’re hopeful that in the next few weeks we’ll be acting on that petition,” he said.

House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., also urged the FDA to ban Red No. 3, which is made from petroleum and gives food and drinks a bright cherry color.

“With the holiday season in full swing where sweet treats are abundant, it is frightening that this chemical remains hidden in these foods that we and our children are eating,” Pallone wrote in a letter to the agency. “While food companies must ensure that the food they market is safe, they are also only required to ensure that their products meet FDA’s standards. This means that thousands of products that contain this chemical can remain on the market.”  

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary, has claimed food dyes cause cancer, but has not said what he would do if confirmed to the Cabinet post — if anything — about artificial food dyes in American food. 

“There are some departments such as the nutrition departments in the FDA that have to go, that are not doing their job, they are not protecting our kids,” Kennedy told NBC News in November. 

The FDA regulates more than three-quarters of the United States’ food supply. 

All color additives must be approved by the FDA before they are used in food sold in the U.S. There are 36 FDA-approved color additives, nine of which are synthetic dyes. This includes the two red dyes facing federal scrutiny. 

Some of the same dyes that are used in food are also used in pharmaceutical drugs, but the dyes are approved separately for each use. In 1990, the FDA banned Red No. 3, also known as erythrosine, from cosmetics and topical drugs under the Delaney Clause, because the chemical was shown to be carcinogenic at high doses in tests on lab rats. 

“We don’t believe there is a risk to humans,” FDA’s Jones said. 

 

 

Is Red No. 3, the artificial food dye, safe? FDA may finally move to ban it