Do your favorite foods have Red Dye 3? Here’s how you can check

SAN ANTONIO – A food dye that gives candy and popular foods a bright, cherry-red color has been banned in the United States.

Due to a potential cancer risk, Food and Drug Administration officials banned the dye called Red 3 from the nation’s food supply on Wednesday.

At least two studies have shown that high levels of the food dye were linked to cancer in rats. However, there is no known link between the dye and cancer in humans, the FDA said.

What foods have Red Dye No. 3?

The dye is found in thousands of consumer products but is primarily used in foods such as candy, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, frozen desserts, icings, frosting and some ingested drugs.

Some foods include:

• Dubble Bubble Gum
• Jelly Belly Candy Corn, Giant Candy Corn, Hello Kitty Mellocreme Candy and Mellocreme Candy Cupcakes
• Chestnut Hill Rainbow Sprinkles, usually found at Family Dollar
• The Original Crumbs Bakeshop Gourmet Cupcakes, Birthday Cake, Red Velvet
• Walmart’s Marshmallow Mini Bites for Valentine’s Day and Harvest
• The Best Shop Smoked Pork Sausage
• Payaso Assorted Mexican Gum Candy
• Palermo Rainbow Vanilla Buttercream Cake, Rainbow Cake Slice and Funfetti Cake Slice, usually found on Instacart
• Weston Pink Curing Salt
• King’s Rainbow Sprinkle Cookies
• Angela Marie’s Crispy Marshmallow Goodies from Choice Foods LLC, usually found on Instacart and Doordash

Consumers can learn whether a product contains the dye on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s branded food database.

Popular foods with Red Dye, like Doritos and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, contain Red Dye No. 40. That synthetic food dye is used to achieve a bright crimson color in food and candy.

Food manufacturers will have until 2027 to reformulate their products without Red Dye No. 3.

The deadline for drugmakers will be 2028.

More coverage on KSAT:

• FDA bans red dye No. 3 from foods