The No.3 Red Dye or Erythrosine was banned by the FDA from foods, dietary supplements, and ingested medicines. Many people believe this was long overdue as it has been 3 decades since it was banned from cosmetics for having been found to have carcinogenic effects and links to attention deficit hyperactivity.
This particular dye is made to give a bright cherry red color. This attracts many companies as it is complicated to find a natural dye that gives that sort of red color.
Scientists ran experiments that found that Red No. 3 can cause rats to get cancer if it was given to them in high doses. Food safety advocates have been pushing for the ban for a while, recently though, they petitioned the FDA which set the ball rolling on the ban after being ignored for years.
“When I heard about the ban, I wasn’t really surprised. More and more keeps coming out about what food additives do to our body. We’ve had different dye bans happen before or suggested bans because of it interacting with ADHD but now we’re seeing a rise in carcinogen,” Foods and Nutrition teacher Kelsey Sentney said.
With evolving technologies and new advocacy groups, there is so much more information being given to us about what is in our food. But why is there so much that is dangerous?
“Things that have that red dye. Red is a really, really hard color to create naturally. You end up getting more of a purpley or an orange. Getting that solid primary color red is very hard to achieve naturally. That is probably why there have been so many red dye bans and more that keep coming out. I think that because they’ve worked so hard to make that specific color, that part of the process of making them, is why they are so detrimental to our health. It’s a very processed food and the more processing, the more free radicals are created and the more carcinogens,” Sentney said.
The process of making these dyes especially for a primary color like red is complicated and this may have caused the many health issues we see associated with red food dyes.
“They are going to have those specific colors and you’re going to have to find a way to tweak it yourself to achieve the desired colors you want. Which happens a lot with cake decorating and whatnot, you’re not gonna be able to achieve those same print colors that you could with an unnatural dye,” Sentney said.
Natural dyes do not give the specific color that people, specifically companies, are looking for. So for appearances, the dye is very much wanted. It is highly processed, however the more processed it is, the more dangerous these foods and additives become. So what will happen to the products that have the Red No. 3 dye?
“They are going to have to recall the products with the dye and reproduce it. The recall costs money, because stores have to then box it and send it back, or they could give instructions to just destroy it. Now those companies have to reproduce and then fill the shelves, replacing a product that was either destroyed or sent back to them,” Business teacher Elise Carter said.
The FDA has given manufacturers until January of 2027 to remove all of the products that contain the Red No. 3 dye and drug manufacturers until January 2028. All of this is an elaborate and expensive process which is why drug manufacturers especially have been given more time as their task in removing these is more complicated because of the reformulation that will need to happen to the products.
“The cost has to go somewhere. If a company is having to eat that cost, they are going to then flip and put that cost back on the consumer, whether it be the price or quantity or new products, whatever it may be,” Carter said.
This will be a shift for consumers as products they may have bought for a long time will be changing. The products are also at risk of getting more expensive which will impact the consumers who use these products and the businesses that use the dye for decorative purposes. From the publicity that this has been getting, companies will want to be more conscious of making sure their products are clean and consumers will worry more about what they ingest.
“We tell our students how to look at their nutrition labels. How to source the things that are most prevalent. Those will be that first ingredient listed on the label and as it gets lower into the list that is going to be less involved,” Sentney said.
The Red No. 3 ban shows that people need to be looking at food labels. It demonstrates that people need to be aware and check the ingredients of what they are consuming. Just because something is synthetic or processed does not mean it is bad, but being informed about the components of food is crucial to protect health.