FDA may finally ban artificial red dye from beverages, candy and other foods
Source: NBC News
Dec. 7, 2024, 7:00 AM EST
The Food and Drug Administration may finally move to ban artificial red food dye, the coloring found in beverages, snacks, cereals and candies.
At the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee meeting Thursday, Jim Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for human foods, said it’s been over a decade since the safety of the synthetic color additive Red No. 40 has been re-evaluated. “With Red 3, we have a petition in front of us to revoke the authorization board, and we’re hopeful that in the next few weeks we’ll be acting on that petition,” he said.
House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., also urged the FDA to ban Red No. 3, which is made from petroleum and gives food and drinks a bright cherry color. “With the holiday season in full swing where sweet treats are abundant, it is frightening that this chemical remains hidden in these foods that we and our children are eating,” Pallone wrote in a letter to the agency. “While food companies must ensure that the food they market is safe, they are also only required to ensure that their products meet FDA’s standards. This means that thousands of products that contain this chemical can remain on the market.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary, has claimed food dyes cause cancer, but has not said what he would do if confirmed to the Cabinet post — if anything — about artificial food dyes in American food. “There are some departments such as the nutrition departments in the FDA that have to go, that are not doing their job, they are not protecting our kids,” Kennedy told NBC News in November. The FDA regulates more than three-quarters of the United States’ food supply.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/red-dye-no-3-fda-ban-food-artificial-color-rcna183095
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Whatever ruling happens now will - hopefully - affect next year's candy, soft drinks, and other products.
(Red 3 is "hot pink"
)
The color comes from either use of the crushed insect and/or from extracting the color from the crushed insect. It is pretty common.
https://www.livescience.com/36292-red-food-dye-bugs-cochineal-carmine.html
Only thing is that it can be an allergen so needs to be listed on the label (often as "carminic acid" ).
and then freeze them. Am growing ginger in pots. I do buy the annatto seeds to use to make annatto (achiote) oil. Have 3 potted limes (including 2 Thai limes and a thorny Mexican key lime) in pots (in my basement overwintering at the moment).
and topicals then - https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetic-products/makeup
And ironically, Canada banned FD&C Red 3 years ago but still use FD&C Red 2, whereas the U.S. banned FD&C Red 2, but have used FD&C Red 3.
+ Blue 2 (light neon blue) mixed = "purple" (depending on how much of each)
(Blue 1 is dark blue)
I also loved the Rock & Rye as a kid, but I don't drink any soda anymore. The rare exception being a Vernors once in a blue moon, which I can't resist for the nostalgia.
But I do remember Towne Club pop, with all the many different flavors. And of course their returnable bottles (and wooden crates) at the Towne Club pop store, long before there was such thing as consumer recycling, per se.
and they gave him the famous "free case of Orange Crush" for appearing. 
The Towne Club was pretty good stuff, plus the novelty of all the many different flavors, and the bottles were cool too. But you had to go their store to get it, it wasn't at the grocery store, so not that convenient. But it was cheap, so...
Red pistachios starting disappearing in the '80s, Matoian confirmed. With the limit on imports and the increase of American grown nuts with American harvesting systems, there became no need to dye the nuts. American pistachio producers use a harvesting system that dries and hulls the nuts before they are able to get stained, which eliminates the need for covering up blemishes altogether. Even today in Iran, Matoian explained, pistachio producers have picked up the new harvesting technique that eliminates stains and the subsequent need for dye.
You can still find red pistachios in some places, Matoian told HuffPost Taste, but they're just a rare novelty product and a seasonal one at Christmastime, not the dominant trend they once were.
The upshot of red pistachios being all but obsolete today, thanks to California-produced pistachios, is that you no longer have to worry about dyed hands -- an unfortunate result of the red dye. Pistachios are just a little more boring now.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-are-red-pistachios_n_6570944
