US plans to ban Cancer-linked Red Dye No. 3 in cereal and other foods: ‘If you can’t put it on your skin why…’
US health officials eyes to ban the artificial food coloring Red No. 3, which has been linked to cancer.
US health officials plan to ban the artificial food coloring Red No. 3, which has been linked to cancer and is currently in scores of products from candy to cold medicine.

The decision is expected as soon as Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter. The timing of an announcement could still change.
The move comes more than 30 years since the Food and Drug Administration prohibited the use of Red No. 3 in cosmetics after studies found tumors linked to the dyes in lab rats. Consumer and patient advocacy groups petitioned the agency more than two years ago to revoke the use of the dye in American diets.
One of the proponents of banning controversial dyes is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
A spokesman for the FDA declined to comment.
“If you can’t put it on your skin why would you eat it?” said Linda Birnbaum, former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, in an interview last month. “Bright red dye is completely unessential. We don’t need bright red candies.”
Birnbaum signed the petition to ban Red No. 3 in the US along with about 20 advocacy groups including Consumer Reports, Public Citizen and the Environmental Working Group.
The dye is common in US supermarkets. About 26% of baking decorations and dessert toppings have the dye, according to an analysis of October data performed by healthy food app GoCoCo. It’s also found in 16% of chewing gum and mints, 13% of candy, and 11% of cookies and biscuits.
Red No. 3 is used in foods such as Brach’s candy corn from Ferrara Candy Co., Betty Crocker sprinkles from General Mills Inc. and strawberry Ensure from Abbott Laboratories as well as drugs including Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s Vyvanse for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and store-brand heartburn pills from Costco Wholesale Corp. and Rite Aid Corp.
The industry should be ready to remove Red No. 3, said Peter Lurie, executive director of Center for Science in the Public Interest, which also signed the petition, in an interview last month. California banned Red No. 3 in foods in 2023, though companies have until 2027 to make the change.
A spokesperson for General Mills said that the company will be in compliance with California’s law when it takes effect. Ferrara has already begun reformulating products without Red No. 3 to align with consumer preferences, a spokesperson told Bloomberg.
Red No. 3 is one of a handful of dyes that have recently come under scrutiny by state legislatures. There is also state-level legislation under consideration around the country to ban other dyes, including Red No. 40, which has been associated with hyperactivity in children, as well as Yellow Nos. 5 and 6, Blue Nos. 1 and 2, and Green No. 3.
Some food and drug makers have already begun switching to other types of dyes such as carmine, which comes from ground insects. California has also banned the additives from the state’s public schools. They’ve been held up as a safety hazard by critics who say artificial dyes may be carcinogenic and lead to hyperactivity in some kids.
The only foods in the European Union that can use Red No. 3, known as erythrosin there, are cocktail and candied cherries.
The EU has a more robust system to review food additives than the US does, Jim Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for human foods, told US senators earlier this month during a hearing on industry tactics that have led millions of Americans to develop diabetes and obesity. Jones said the agency recently created an office to examine food chemicals that are on the market and is pushing Congress for more funding.
