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Advocates Demand FDA Ban Red Dye 3, A Cancer-Causing Food Additive

""It is frightening that this chemical remains hidden in these foods that we and our children are eating.”"

"In the waning days of the Biden administration, a long-fought battle over a cancer-causing food additive is again in the spotlight as consumer advocacy groups and lawmakers demand federal regulators ban Red Dye No. 3, a chemical used to give popular candies, foods and drinks their cherry-red colors.

The issue took center stage Thursday at a U.S. Senate hearing where lawmakers grilled Jim Jones, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deputy commissioner for human foods, over the issue.

“Red 3 has been known to cause cancer in cosmetics but we still allow it to be put in our food. I don’t understand that,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville said in the hearing. “If we know something is deadly for anybody that ingests it how do we continue to just study that and not say hey, enough is enough?”

Industry studies linked Red Dye 3 to cancer in rodents more than 30 years ago, and public health groups have spent years lobbying food companies and regulators to get the chemical out of foods."

Shannon Kelleher reports for The New Lede December 9, 2024.

Source: The New Lede, 12/10/2024