Tell the FDA to Ban Carcinogenic & Neurotoxic Food Dyes
A ban on carcinogenic and neurotoxic food dyes is long overdue–if you were born after 1990, they should have been taken off the market before you were born! Beets, red cabbage, and black currants make great red dyes–that’s what’s used in organic food (if it’s colored at all). But, the FDA continues to allow petroleum-derived synthetics like Red 3 and Red 40 to be used in thousands of different foods and drinks sold in the U.S., including frozen desserts, cocktail cherries, breakfast cereals, candy, sugary drinks, and cake frosting.
Red 3, manufactured by United States Biological, is banned in Australia, China, the European Union, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, because long-term animal feeding studies show it causes cancer in animals, specifically thyroid tumors. As of 2027, Red 3 will be banned in California, too, and ten other states have introduced similar legislation.
The Food & Drug Administration is required to ban any color additive that has been found to induce cancer in humans or animals at any dose. The FDA determined that Red 3 causes cancer back in 1990, but it never took action–and it has ignored a 2022 petition filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, even though it was supposed to respond within six months.
