You’ve Been Eating Red Dye 3 for Decades. Should You Worry?

How dangerous is Red No. 3, really?

The petition prompting the ban drew on research from the 1980s showing that when male rats are injected with high doses of Red No. 3, also known as erythrosine, every day for 19 weeks, they’re highly likely to develop thyroid tumors. The finding is largely related to the compound’s iodine content, Glavasich says.

To consume a comparable amount, though, a 150-pound person would need to eat 23 grams of the additive; a drop of food coloring is a mere milligram. “Would we actually ingest that every day? No, but it's still something to think about with all the food dyes that are in our food,” Glavasich says.

Bonnie Taub-Dix, a New York-based registered dietitian and host of the Media Savvy Podcast, agrees the ban is a good, and overdue, move. She included Red No. 3 as an ingredient to avoid in her 2011 book, Read It Before You Eat It: Taking You from Label to Table. “As a dietitian and a consumer, these are things that I have been concerned about for years,” Taub-Dix says. “Our current research that we know of seems to say that the accumulation of it is not dangerous, but how do we really know?”

Plus, cutting back on foods containing dyes and other artificial additives means naturally limiting your intake of processed and not-particularly healthy foods, adds Taub-Dix.

Erythrosine is “in stuff we don't really need anyway — candies and pastries — and I'm not saying that that no one should ever eat them, but if this is a part of your regular diet, hopefully this announcement or ban will help give you pause as to the frequency at which you eat these things,” she says.

There may, however, be some unintended consequences of the ban, some experts say. Margaret M. Quinlan, a professor of communication studies and director of health and medical humanities at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, says many manufacturers will likely replace Red No. 3 with Red No. 40, which has its own potential risks, like a link to hyperactivity and other behavioral issues in children. In fact, for this reason, the California School Food Safety Act banned it and five other chemicals in a law signed last year.

What’s more, Quinlan adds, “changing food dyes doesn't do anything if you can't access or afford enough food to meet your basic needs and/or can't access fresh food.”

Lambert has a related take: “People make choices based on how their food looks, and how their food smells, and how their food tastes,” he says. Removing dyes could, then, lead to food waste. “I try to be really careful not to dismiss people's concerns, especially about something like cancer,” says Lambert, who studies how diet can help prevent cancer. “But if you ban [an additive] and the shelf life goes down or it becomes less visually appealing and more of it ends up in landfill, then you’re potentially exacerbating food insecurity and those kinds of things.”

What to do now

Food and drink manufacturers in the U.S. have until January 2027 to reformulate their products to remove Red No. 3. Meantime, be aware of which products contain it by looking for "FD&C Red No. 3,” FD&C Red 3” or just “Red 3” on food labels. Currently, over 3,000 products fit that bill, the Environmental Working Group’s database finds.

While you may be able to guess where the chemical lurks based on a product’s cherry-red looks alone, some brands use more natural (or no) colorings, or Red 40 instead. Plus, the dye can show up where you wouldn’t expect it, like in some hot dogs and even a brand of yellow rice. Some medicines, including acetaminophen, can contain it too. Medication manufacturers have until January 2028 to make the change. 

Generally, aiming for more whole foods will naturally weed out products with potentially risky dyes. Glavasich recommends shopping the grocery store’s perimeter, where most produce and other less processed foods tend to reside, and choosing options with no more than 10 (recognizable) ingredients. “Anything you can't pronounce, you really want to try to limit as best as you can, because those things we still don't know what research will show in the future,” she says. “It takes years for things to come out and to see the results.”

Meanwhile, at home, experiment with more natural food colorings too. For example, a little beet juice can go a long way when mixed into white frosting. “A lot of people say: This hasn't killed me yet, so why worry about it at this point?” Taub-Dix says. “And my response to that is: It’s never too late to make a difference and to make a change and to bring yourself to a healthier place.”