The red dye that was just banned in the United States is FD&C Red No. 3, also known as erythrosine. On January 15, 2025, the FDA issued an order revoking its use in food and ingested drugs, giving food manufacturers until January 15, 2027, and drug manufacturers until January 18, 2028, to reformulate their products. It’s not the first red dye to be pulled from the market: Red No. 2 (amaranth) was banned back in 1976.
Why Red No. 3 Was Banned
The ban comes down to a legal requirement called the Delaney Clause, which prohibits any food additive shown to cause cancer in humans or animals. In long-term studies on rats, males fed the highest doses of Red No. 3 developed thyroid tumors at significantly elevated rates. Their thyroid glands grew to roughly double the weight of those in untreated rats, and researchers documented statistically significant increases in thyroid follicular cell tumors.
The FDA actually knew about this data for decades. In 1990, the agency used the same cancer findings to deny Red No. 3 for use in cosmetics and topical drugs. But the dye remained legal in food and oral medications for another 35 years, a gap that drew increasing criticism from consumer advocacy groups and eventually led to the 2025 order.
Foods and Medications That Contain It
Red No. 3 is more common than most people realize. The Environmental Working Group lists more than 3,000 food products containing it. You’ll find it in candy corn, jelly beans, rainbow sprinkles, lollipops, maraschino cherries, cake mixes, frostings, some cereals, chewing gum, fruit cocktail, hot dogs, sausages, imitation bacon bits, ice cream, sports drinks, and strawberry-flavored milk and protein powders. Imitation and plant-based meats like vegan bacon also use it.
The dye also shows up in a surprising number of medications and supplements: certain formulations of acetaminophen, cough syrups, gummy vitamins, and prescription drugs for conditions ranging from acid reflux to ADHD. These products have an extra year (until 2028) to switch to alternatives.
Red No. 2: The Earlier Ban
Red No. 3 isn’t the first synthetic red dye removed from the U.S. food supply. Red No. 2, known generically as amaranth, was banned in January 1976 after roughly 15 years of suspicion that it was carcinogenic or toxic to the reproductive system. That ban caused a wave of product reformulations at the time, and many manufacturers switched to Red No. 40, which remains the most widely used red food dye in the country today.
Red No. 40 Is Not Banned, but It Carries Warnings in Europe
If you’ve seen headlines about red dye and children’s behavior, those concerns mostly center on Red No. 40 (called Allura Red in the EU), which is still legal in both the U.S. and Europe. The difference is how the two regions handle it. Since 2010, any food sold in the EU containing Red No. 40 and five other synthetic dyes must carry a warning label stating the colors “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.”
The science behind those warnings is real but modest. A meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that synthetic food colors had a small but statistically significant effect on attention and hyperactivity, with an effect size of about 0.22 in high-quality studies. Psychometric tests of attention showed a similar effect size of 0.27. The researchers estimated that roughly 8% of children diagnosed with ADHD may have symptoms related to synthetic food colors. That’s a meaningful number for affected families, even though it represents a minority of cases. The U.S. has no equivalent labeling requirement.
California’s Separate Ban
California passed the California Food Safety Act in 2023, which independently bans Red No. 3 in food sold in the state starting January 1, 2027. The state law arrived before the federal ban and helped build political momentum for the FDA’s decision. California’s law also bans several other additives not covered by the federal order.
What Replaces Red No. 3
Food manufacturers are turning to natural colorants to fill the gap. Common replacements include beet juice, carmine (derived from insects), and lycopene from tomatoes. A newer option gaining attention is anthocyanins, the pigments that give blackberries, red cabbage, and grapes their deep color. Researchers at Ohio State University have developed modified forms of these pigments that stay vibrant under heat, light, and exposure to common additives like vitamin C, which has historically been a weakness of natural colorants. These stabilized versions can deliver shades of red, orange, and yellow without synthetic chemistry.
For consumers, the transition will be gradual. Products on store shelves right now may still contain Red No. 3 until manufacturers hit their reformulation deadlines. If you want to avoid it before then, check ingredient lists for “FD&C Red No. 3,” “Red 3,” or “erythrosine.” It often appears in foods you wouldn’t expect to be dyed, like canned fruit, flavored oatmeal, and certain brands of pickles.