Professor and carcinogenesis research scientist Dr. Fahd Al-Khudairi revealed that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided to ban the red dye known as Red 3 or erythrosine and prohibit its use in food, dietary supplements, and oral medications, after it was linked to results of scientific studies conducted on laboratory animals.

Al-Khudairi explained that scientific experiments linked this synthetic color derived from petroleum, officially known as FD&C Red No. 3, to thyroid cancer in male laboratory rats, which prompted the US regulatory agency to revoke its license based on the Delaney Clause, which explicitly prohibits additives proven to cause cancer in humans or animals.

The US Food and Drug Administration set deadlines for compliance with this decision; food and dietary supplement manufacturers must remove the dye from their products by January 15, 2027, while oral drug manufacturers have been given a longer deadline until January 18, 2028, to reformulate their products.

Al-Khudairi noted that this dye was not new to ban lists, as it had previously been banned in cosmetics and topical medications since 1990 due to similar animal study results, stressing that the new decision falls within the framework of regulatory measures aimed at reducing industrial additives that raise serious health concerns.