From candy and concentrated fruit juice to pickles and ice cream, red dye No. 3 gives thousands of products a bright, cherry-red hue. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a ban on red No. 3 on Jan. 15, giving food and drink manufacturers two years to reformulate their products.
The United States follows several other countries, including Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the European Union, which have already banned or restricted the use of the petroleum-based colouring in food and drinks. Unless new information arises, Canada will not be joining them.
Red No. 3 (a.k.a. erythrosine) “has been permitted for use as a food colour in Canada and internationally for many years,” Health Canada said in an emailed statement. “If new scientific data becomes available demonstrating that FD&C Red No. 3 poses a human health risk as an ingredient in food or drugs, Health Canada will take action to mitigate that risk, including, if necessary, no longer permitting it to be used as a colouring agent in food and drugs.”
The government department cited a 2018 re-evaluation by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization as the reason for its decision. After reviewing the expert committee’s findings, Health Canada concluded that the synthetic dye doesn’t pose a health risk to the general public at the levels prescribed in the List of Permitted Food Colours.
Two animal studies linked high levels of red dye No. 3 to cancer in the 1980s “due to a rat-specific hormonal mechanism which does not exist in humans,” Health Canada said. “Studies in other animals and in humans did not show these effects, and claims that the use of this colour in food puts people’s health at risk are not supported by the available scientific evidence.”
In 1990, the FDA banned red dye No. 3 in cosmetics (which Canada also allows) under the Delaney Clause, a federal law prohibiting it “from approving the use of any food additive found to cause cancer in animals or humans.”
Setting the stage for the FDA’s recent decision was a 2022 petition in which several advocacy groups, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), argued the government should ban the dye because of its links to cancer and its ubiquity in products, especially those consumed by children.
“At long last, the FDA is ending the regulatory paradox of Red 3 being illegal for use in lipstick, but perfectly legal to feed to children in the form of candy,” Peter Lurie, president of the CSPI, said in a statement.
Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society, told The Canadian Press that despite the lack of scientific evidence, he would like to see red dye No. 3 banned in Canada. “The important issue is: when you’re going to put something into food, it should be because it serves some sort of benefit, other than just making something look more appealing.”
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