The ban by US regulators on Wednesday in food items comes more than three decades after it was barred from cosmetics.
Published On 15 Jan 2025
The United States has banned the use of a synthetic food dye that gives some candies, cakes and certain oral medications a cherry-red colour, following evidence that the dye causes cancer in laboratory rats.
The ban on Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration on the Red No. 3 dye in food items comes more than three decades after it was barred in cosmetics.
“Why you would say something can’t be in cosmetics, but you can eat it makes no sense to me. I am very pleased that they finally have done what I think they should have done years ago,” said petitioner Linda Birnbaum, former director at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program.
Consumer advocacy groups have been pushing for the dye’s ban for several years, including a petition in 2022 to review