Red 40 is the most widely used artificial food dye in the United States, showing up in hundreds of everyday products from cereal to soda to yogurt. Many of these are foods you’d never suspect of containing synthetic color. Here’s a breakdown of where Red 40 hides across the grocery store.
Candy and Fruit Snacks
This is probably the least surprising category. Red 40 is a staple in brightly colored candy, including Skittles, Twizzlers, Swedish Fish, and many varieties of gummy bears and gummy worms. Fruit-flavored snacks marketed to kids are another major source. Fruit by the Foot, made by General Mills, lists Red 40 across nearly every variety, including Strawberry Tie-Dye, Berry Tie-Dye, and their multi-packs. Fruit Roll-Ups and similar rolled or pressed fruit snacks typically contain it as well.
Rainbow sprinkles, sold under dozens of store brands and specialty labels, almost always contain Red 40 alongside other synthetic dyes. That means cupcakes, cookies, and cake pops decorated with sprinkles carry the dye even if the baked good itself doesn’t. Red velvet cakes, whoopie pies, and ring cakes frequently rely on Red 40 for their signature color rather than using cocoa or beet-based alternatives.
Breakfast Cereals
Brightly colored kids’ cereals are some of the most common sources of Red 40 in a typical household. Froot Loops, Lucky Charms, and Fruity Pebbles all list it as an ingredient. So do many store-brand equivalents. The dye is used to create the red, orange, and pink pieces in these cereals, often combined with Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 to expand the color palette. If a cereal box features a rainbow of colors, checking the ingredient list for Red 40 is worth your time.
Sodas and Drinks
Red-colored sodas are an obvious source, but the specific brands may surprise you. Big Red, the iconic Texas soft drink, lists Red 40 as an ingredient. Mountain Dew Code Red, Crush Strawberry, and many fruit punch sodas rely on it too. The dye is scheduled to be removed from food and beverages by the end of 2026 under new federal guidelines, but for now it remains in wide circulation.
Beyond soda, Red 40 appears in sports drinks, energy drinks, powdered drink mixes like Kool-Aid, and flavored waters. Some protein powders, particularly berry or fruit punch flavors, contain it as well. If a drink is red, pink, orange, or purple and isn’t colored with fruit juice, there’s a good chance Red 40 is involved.
Dairy Products and Desserts
Flavored yogurts, especially strawberry and berry varieties marketed to children, commonly use Red 40. Flavored milk (strawberry milk in particular) often contains it too. Some ice cream brands add it to enhance the color of strawberry, cherry, or rainbow sherbet flavors. Pudding cups, gelatin desserts, and frozen popsicles round out the dessert category.
The pattern here is that many of these products already contain real fruit or fruit flavoring, but manufacturers add Red 40 to make the color more vivid and consistent from batch to batch.
Savory and Processed Foods
Red 40 isn’t limited to sweet foods. Flavored chips, cheese-flavored snacks like Doritos and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, and some barbecue sauces contain the dye. Certain brands of salad dressing, particularly French and Catalina styles, use it to achieve a deeper red-orange hue. Some packaged macaroni and cheese mixes include it alongside Yellow 5 and Yellow 6.
Condiments can be a hidden source. Certain ketchups, hot sauces, and flavored mustards use Red 40, though many mainstream brands rely on tomatoes or natural spices for color instead. Reading the ingredient list is the only reliable way to tell.
Medications and Vitamins
One category people rarely think about is over-the-counter medications and supplements. Children’s pain reliever syrups, cough and cold syrups, allergy medicines, and chewable vitamins frequently contain Red 40 as a colorant. Research published in Food and Chemical Toxicology found that some children’s pain reliever syrups deliver twice the FDA’s acceptable daily intake of Red 40 in a single serving, and some cough and cold syrups deliver roughly three times that amount. Children’s gummy vitamins and prenatal vitamin tablets may contain it as well.
How to Spot It on Labels
Red 40 goes by several names depending on the product and where it was manufactured. On U.S. food labels, you’ll most often see “Red 40” or “FD&C Red No. 40.” On international or imported products, look for “Allura Red,” “Allura Red AC,” “Food Red 17,” or the European additive code “E129.” The chemical name, disodium 6-hydroxy-5-((2-methoxy-5-methyl-4-sulfophenyl)azo)-2-naphthalenesulfonate, occasionally appears on pharmaceutical labels but almost never on food packaging.
A practical shortcut: if a packaged food is red, pink, orange, or purple and the ingredient list doesn’t mention a natural source of color (like beet juice, paprika extract, or fruit juice concentrate), flip to the fine print. Red 40 is usually listed near the end of the ingredient list, sometimes grouped under a “contains” or “color added” statement.
Natural Alternatives Replacing Red 40
Several major food companies have started swapping Red 40 for plant-based colorants, particularly as consumer pressure and regulatory changes accelerate. The most common replacements include beet juice concentrate, paprika extract, and anthocyanins, which are the natural pigments that give blackberries, red cabbage, and grapes their deep color. Researchers at Ohio State University have developed anthocyanin-based colorants stable enough to withstand the heat of baking and the acidity of beverages, making them practical for gummies, hard candies, sports drinks, and baked goods.
If you’re looking to avoid Red 40, products labeled “no artificial colors” or “colored with fruit and vegetable juice” are your simplest filter. Organic products are required to use only natural colorants, so choosing organic versions of yogurt, cereal, or snacks eliminates Red 40 by default.