On November 25, 2024, a letter signed by 23 members of U.S. Congress was sent to James (Jim) Jones, Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Kristi Muldoon Jacobs, Ph.D., Acting Director of FDA’s Office of Food Additive Safety, urging the agency to ban red dye 3 as an additive in foods.

Red dye 3 is a controversial synthetic food colorant that has been at the center of recent discourse about U.S. food additives regulation. In October 2023, it was banned from foods sold or manufactured in California (effective January 2027) with the passage of the California Food Safety Act.

Consumer groups have also been petitioning FDA to ban red dye 3 in foods for years, due to its adverse neurobehavioral effects in children and its inclusion in many foods marketed to kids, like candy. A petition to ban red dye 3—filed in November 2022 by Consumer Reports, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Center for Food Safety, the Environmental Working Group, and 20 other high-profile watchdog groups and scientists—is currently under FDA review.

At present, FDA is working on the development of an enhanced, systematic post-market chemical review process, and has published a list of priority chemicals for review with projected timelines. Red dye 3 is included in the list. The colorant is currently banned by FDA for use in cosmetics, but it is still approved for food uses.

The recent letter from Congress to FDA echoes many widely held concerns about red dye 3, including animal studies that demonstrate its carcinogenicity, and the neurobehavioral effects it has on children. The letter also cites that red 3 has been banned for food use by the EU, Australia, and New Zealand, and mentions its ban in the California Food Safety Act.

“A ban on red dye 3 is not only statutorily required, but it is also feasible—alternatives are widely available,” says the letter from Congress. “…34 years of inaction is far too long. We are calling on FDA to use its regulatory authority to ban red dye 3 from our nation’s food supply before the end of this Congress.”

U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) led the letter to FDA with 22 other congresspeople. She has been active in recent efforts to change federal food regulation, such as introducing the Toxic Free Food Act and the Federal Food Administration Act. Rep. DeLauro also previously signed a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) questioning how it handled the 2024 listeriosis outbreak linked to Boar’s Head deli meat.

Update, December 9, 2024: In a December 5 Senate Committee hearing, FDA Commissioner for Human Foods Jim Jones and FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D. revealed that a decision on whether to revoke the food use authorization for red dye 3 could be forthcoming in the next few weeks.