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Cancer-Linked Red Dye to be banned in US Food, Drugs
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- 00:00So basically we have this die read three. It’s one of a whole long list of guys that have been in the spotlight recently, but Read three is a particularly interesting one and came up because of its connections to cancer because it has been found to cause tumors in lab rats. So because of that, fell under a specific statute and gave the FDA the clearance to ban it, which they did this morning, and which we were able to break that a little bit ahead of the FDA announcement. Yeah, congratulations on that story. I mean, Carol and I both Senate early on this morning when we saw that headline crossed, what surprised me after reading it, Dana, was one it took so long and to get to one, it took so long, given the fact that there are different rules and regulations around this specific ingredient in other parts of the world. And two, in that it’s in so much at the grocery store right now. What is this in I’m thinking sprinkles some different types of sweets, candies, blocks, candy, corn. Yeah. What’s going on? Yeah, it’s in a lot of candy mints. Like you said, the sprinkles, it’s in things like strawberry ensure from Abbott, and you might find it in other other drugs. It’s pretty popular in the categories that it’s in. And it’s funny, this is definitely one of those things that like once you see it, you start looking at all the ingredient labels and you’re like, Oh God, wow, this is in quite a lot of stuff. Well, what should we what should be on our radar now if an ingredient like this is banned? You mentioned other ingredients that are associated with hyperactivity in children. What should kind of be on our radar as conscious consumers? Because, yes, the government is taking action now. But I would venture to say and I think a lot of people out there argue there is a lot in our food that isn’t necessarily good for us. Yeah, there there are a lot of ingredients that advocates would say we should just get rid of them because, you know, if you look at something like red number three or red 40, which is not impacted by today’s rule from from the FDA, these are ingredients that don’t serve any purpose other than making something look pretty. So a lot of advocates would say, like, why are we taking a risk for something like that? As consumers, it’s really hard. If you look at an ingredient label to know what’s in there for cosmetic purposes and what’s in there for something a little bit more utilitarian like, say, increasing shelf life. But I would say any dye, like anything that comes with the color and a number you can you can assume is potentially going to be in the spotlight in the next administration from consumer groups and and in the near future. Dina, I got to ask you, though, this move coming more than 30 years since the FDA prohibited the use of red number three in cosmetics after studies found tumors linked to the dye in lab rats. Why wasn’t it, like, banned from food back then? This is a really good question. And, you know, I don’t think I can answer that with 100% certainty. But I would just say that, you know, in Europe, you would not find this in almost anything. They do allow it in maraschino cherries. I mean, I think toothpaste as well. But here we just don’t have the same kind of. We don’t we don’t regulate our food the way they do in Europe. We have we have we have a little bit looser standards.