Red Dye 3 is Now Banned — Foods Effected Found in WA

It's like the 70s-80s all over again.

When I was growing up my family told me M&Ms used to have a red one but it was removed due to Red Dye 2 being banned. So my life growing up in the 80s included M&Ms being very natural tone in color compared to what we have today.

Of course, red M&Ms were introduced in the mid-late 80s and more colors would follow suit (like blue).

Red Dye No. 3 just made the FDA ban list as it can cause cancer. Big yikes!

And so many of our products today contain Red Dye no. 3 as a way of brightening up the foods we eat.

Fortunately, red dye 3 should be easily listed in the ingredients on the package.

Here are some foods found in Washington State that may contain Red Dye 3.

Cookies, Cakes, Frosting, and Decorations (read the label for ingredients)
Fruit by the Foot
Toaster Pastries
Entenmann's Little Bites Party Cake Mini Muffins
Pez
Dubble Bubble bubble gum
Jelly Bellys
Gummy Worms and items like it
Strawberry Milk
Ice Cream
Frozen Yogurt
Popcicles
Cereal
Fruit Snacks
Marachino Cherries
Soda
Cough Syrup
Gummy Vitamins

And many, many more.

Again, check the label just in case.

There are several companies who have already removed Red Dye 3 out of their ingredients so that's nice.
But just double-check just in case.

Some companies are not only proud about it, but they're also smug about it.

This is still found in products today, but these manufacturers have the next couple of years to figure out how to swap it out. Most likely, they'll have figured it out before then instead of waiting until the last minute.

You can read more on Newsweek.