The Food and Drug Administration will decide on a ban of certain food dyes in the coming weeks after receiving a petition to review the safety of Red 3, NBC News reports.
“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,” Jim Jones, the deputy commissioner for human foods at the FDA, said during a Senate meeting this week, per NBC.
According to the FDA, the agency has reviewed the safety of Red 3 —which is derived from petroleum and found snacks, beverages, candy and more — in food and drugs “multiple times” since it was first approved in 1969, but the petition has requested for the additive to be reviewed once more.
“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,” US Representative Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), a ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, wrote in a letter to the FDA.
“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.”
He argued that there is “no reason” for the additive to be in food “except to entice and mislead customers” to make products appear “more appealing.”
Thomas Galligan, who works at the Center for Science in the Public Interest as a principal scientist for food additives and supplements, echoed a similar sentiment.
“These food dyes only serve one function in food, to make them look pretty so you and I want to buy it, it’s a marketing tool,” he told NBC.
While the FDA has stated that food dyes are safe and do not pose health risks, the dye was banned from topical drugs and cosmetics in 1990.
“There is something called the precautionary principle, which is basically the thought that it’s better to be safe than sorry,” Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health adjunct professor Jerold Mande, a former senior adviser for the FDA and former deputy undersecretary for food safety in the Agriculture Department, told NBC.
“The U.S. wears it as a badge of honor that we don’t adhere to it.”
Red 3, however, is banned in other countries and in the state of California.
“We really don’t have the science we should have so these things are a little unclear, but these dyes and behavioral issues, there is an established connection,” Mande said, saying the “little science” conducted by the government is “most concerning.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to be health secretary, has previously claimed the food dyes are linked to cancer.
Some studies have shown the potential harms posed by food dyes, such as ill effects on gut health and behavioral issues. Researchers have also found evidence that Red 3 causes cancer in animals, per NBC News.
“The evidence now shows pretty conclusively that when some kids eat these, they will experience nervous system effects that look like ADHD,” Galligan said.
“There are 27 human clinical trials that show these dyes do in fact harm children’s behavior.”
