On October 24, 2022, a coalition of advocacy groups, led by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), submitted a petition to FDA to ban the use of FD&C Red No. 3 colorant in food, dietary supplements, and ingested drugs.  This approved color additive is widely used in confectionery products, as well as in a variety of other processed foods.

The petitioners argue that FD&C Red No. 3 should be removed from the permanent list of approved color additives since FDA has already made the determination that very high doses of the additive can cause cancer in laboratory animals and that subsequent studies have reinforced that conclusion.

Previously, in 2008, CSPI petitioned FDA to ban all artificial food colors, including Red No. 3, but FDA rejected this request, after its Food Advisory Committee found no causal link between children’s consumption of FD&C colors approved for general use in food and behavioral effects.  However, in 2021, California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) published a report concluding that “[t]he scientific literature indicates that synthetic food dyes can impact neurobehavior in some children.”