If you’ve been following the news lately, as I’m sure many of us have, with everything going on, you might have missed that the FDA recently banned Red Dye No. 3. While this was touted as a massive victory for the cHeMiCaLs ArE bAd and MAHA crowds, the ruling still gives manufacturers TWO years to make the change. That means we’ll still be consuming Red Dye No. 3 for two more years. If it’s now a banned ingredient, should we be scared? Nope. Nothing to worry about. That’s the TL;DR version. If you actually want to know why, and how it got banned, keep reading.
What is Red Dye No. 3?
Red Dye No. 3, also known as Erythrosine, or E127 in the European Union, is a synthetic food dye that gives foods a bright red color. The best example? Maraschino cherries. Yeah, that color red. It’s found in candies, baked goods, the aforementioned maraschino cherries, and until 1994, it was also found in cosmetics.
What are the claims against it?
In a 1988 study done in laboratory rats, rats were fed INSANELY high doses of either Red Dye No. 3 or Red Dye No. 105. By INSANELY high, I mean 4% of their entire diet for 19 days. Considering that by our current standards, Red Dye No. 3 has 0 calories (rounding), to get to 4% of daily caloric intake, they fed these rats 14,000,000 times what is typically consumed. Yes, you read that correctly, 14 MILLION times the typical dose.
And yes, these rats grew thyroid tumors. As is often the case when you hear “this substance causes cancer in laboratory animals,” dig a little deeper. When testing artificial products or sweeteners, the dosages used are often extreme. It is the dose that makes the poison, and the substance is question is often safe in the dosages that we see here in the US.
If Red Dye No. 3 is safe, why is it banned?
Many claim that Red Dye No. 3 is banned in the EU, so it should be banned here. It’s not banned in the EU, it’s explicitly authorized for candied and maraschino cherries. It’s just called E127, so you won’t see Red Dye No. 3 listed on ingredients lists. A 2011 European Food Safety Authority board upheld that it is consumed in such small amounts as to be safe.
Why is it now being banned in the US? Because of a 2022 legal petition which cites the Delaney Clause of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act of 1938. According to this clause, which was added to the FD&C Act in 1960, any ingredient which is shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals is prohibited from receiving FDA authorization. In other words, the ban is PURELY a legal matter, rather than one of actual safety. In fact, the actual mechanism by which the rats in the 1988 study developed cancer DOES NOT EXIST in humans.
What happens now?
American manufacturers have 2 years to remove Red Dye No. 3 from their products, unless the Delaney Clause is amended. Given the agenda of the new administration, I can guarantee this won’t happen. If I’m wrong, I’ll eat 6 pounds of Red Dye No. 3. Instead, manufacturers will likely turn to other food dyes like Red Dye No. 40, which is the coloring you find in Swedish Fish. If that gets banned, they’ll turn to some other dye. And on and on it will go.
Why? Because our food system is set up to maximize profit, rather than focus on the health of individuals. It’s easy and politically convenient to blame specific ingredients. All our politicians need to do then is ban an ingredient, and they can claim that they’ve done something to improve the health of our country, when in reality there is ZERO effective change.
The media has historically been terrible when it comes to fear mongering food ingredients, and specific foods themselves. I used to joke that EVERYTHING causes cancer in some laboratory animal. So what can you do? Focus on eating mostly quality foods – protein and veggies with every meal, eat lots of fiber, drink water, sleep, and exercise. It really is that simple.
When you hear something about an ingredient that scares you, STOP, and take a beat. Maybe do a little research. Find the articles/studies in question, and read beyond the headlines and AI generated Google results. Employ your critical thinking skills, and you’ll realize that most of the fearmongering is baseless. Buckle up, it’s going to be a long four years. So for now, I’ll leave you with this entertaining clip:
