The FDA Formally Banned Pink Dye No. 3 From Use in Meals, Drinks, and Medicines

It is official: The Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned Pink Dye No. 3 in meals, drinks, and ingested medicine within the U.S.

The Washington Submit reported that Pink dye No. 3 should be faraway from meals merchandise by mid-January 2027 and from ingested medicine in 2028. The FDA famous on its web site that it used the Delaney Clause, which prohibits components discovered to trigger most cancers in people, as the premise for the ban.

“The Delaney Clause is obvious; the FDA can’t authorize a meals additive or coloration additive if it has been discovered to trigger most cancers in people or animals,” Jim Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for human meals, mentioned in a press release shared with reporters. 

As for what, precisely, it is going to be faraway from, the FDA famous that Pink No. 3 has been “primarily utilized in sure meals merchandise, reminiscent of sweet, muffins and cupcakes, cookies, frozen desserts, and frostings and icings,” which means your store-bought sweet will seemingly are available a little bit little bit of a unique hue in a number of years. 

In 2022, Shopper Stories signed a petition led by the Heart for Science within the Public Curiosity calling for a ban of Pink Dye 3, and in October of 2024, Shopper Stories additionally delivered a petition signed by greater than 80,000 customers asking the FDA for the ban. Now, the group says it is “applauding” the FDA’s choice. 

“Pink Dye 3 poses an unacceptable danger to our well being, particularly when safer options are available,” Brian Ronholm, director of meals coverage at Shopper Stories, shared in a press release offered to Meals & Wine. “By banning Pink Dye 3, the FDA will shield the general public by encouraging producers to modify to safer components already utilized in merchandise bought in Europe and quite a few different international locations.”

Nevertheless, the group added that it’ll proceed to press the FDA to ban different artificial meals dyes linked to neurobehavioral issues. It pointed to a 2021 research by the California Workplace of Environmental Well being Hazard Evaluation, which discovered that many meals dyes and colorants — together with the six dyes now banned below the California Faculty Meals Security Act — may make youngsters extra susceptible to behavioral difficulties.
 
“Many artificial meals dyes are allowed in meals however haven’t been reviewed for security by the FDA in a long time regardless of latest research which have linked the chemical compounds to severe well being issues,” Ronholm added. “It’s time for the FDA to meet up with the most recent science and get these dangerous chemical compounds out of our meals.”