Erythrosine

Well, this is America, so... [laughs]

Red 3, so another artificial dye, but one that I believe is also authorized for use in the EU.

This is another change.

It was restricted in early 2025 in the US due to the invocation of something called the Delaney Clause.

So in 2022, a petition requested the FDA evaluate whether the Delaney Clause should be invoked for Red No. 3 due to two studies, not new studies by the way.

These were just old and they ha- they just wanted to bring it up at this point.

So the two studies in male rats found that they developed thyroid tumors after high levels of exposure to Red 3.

The mechanism that led to the development of cancer is not a mechanism that exists in humans, and again, the levels they were exposed to were much, much higher than the levels humans are exposed to.

Now let me talk about the synthetic food dyes because this is where the story gets both darker and honestly, a little more hopeful.

For years, we have been coloring our food supply, especially the food marketed directly to children with petroleum-based synthetic dyes, Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, and Red 3.

These dyes have been linked in research to attention and behavioral issues in children, and Red 3 in particular carried cancer concerns for decades.

And here's the turning point.

In January of 2025, the Food and Drug Administration finally issued an order to revoke the use of Red 3 in food and ingested drugs.

And they did it under something called the Delaney Clause, a provision in the law that flatly prohibits any additives shown to cause cancer in humans or animals.

Read that carefully.