The FDA has banned the use of FD&C Red No. 3. This product is a synthetic food dye that gives foods and drinks a bright, cherry-red color. Compared to other certified colors, it less commonly used and can mainly be found in things like candy, cakes, cookies, and icings. Food manufacturers who use FD&C Red No. 3 have until January 15, 2027 to reformulate their product.

Why is Red No. 3 being banned?

As part of the 1960 Delaney Clause any food additive or color additive that has been found to cause cancer in humans or animals is prohibited (the "or animals" is important). In this specific case, Red No. 3 has been shown to cause cancer in male rats. That said, it hasn't been shown that Red No. 3 causes cancer in humans or other animals. And the rats in the two studies cited were exposed to much higher levels than typical human exposure. The FDA states that "claims that the use of FD&C Red No. 3 in food and in ingested drugs puts people at risk are not supported by the available scientific information." Nonetheless, based on its proven ability to be a carcinogen in rats, the dye will no longer be allowed.

How can you tell how many of your recipes use Red No. 3 (or any other ingredient)?

ReciPal makes it easy to search through all of the ingredients used in any recipe that you have in the system. From the bottom of your Recipe Dashboard page, choose "Edit All Ingredient Lists". From here you can type the name of an ingredient in the search bar. When you click "View Recipes" it will show the number of recipes that it's used in.

In this case I've searched for my salted butter and found I've used it in 3 different recipes.

How can you replace Red No. 3 (or any other ingredient) across all recipes that use it?

Once you've clicked into an ingredient, ReciPal allows you to replace it across all of the recipes that use it. After you click the "View Recipes" then select the "Replace" option.

Finally, just search for a new ingredient to replace the current one in all the recipes that use it. In this case, I want to reduce the amount of sodium in my recipes so I'll replace salted butter with unsalted butter.

Conclusion

It's good to see the FDA taking action on a potentially harmful food dye. The US still allows dyes that have been banned in other countries, but we may be seeing more regulation put into place on this front. Regardless of whether the FDA bans a product that you were using, or you simply need to swap in a new ingredient that works better for your recipe, ReciPal makes it easy to find and replace ingredients across all of your recipes.