FDA bans use of Red No. 3 dye in food, drinks

The government should make it illegal to drink bleach.
- Nah, I'm fine with drinking bleach being legal.
- Bleach is apart of the health-supplement market and is therefore unregulated.
"Red is our color! white erasure!!!" /$
People have been making jokes about "Red #3 maxing" for months.
Anyone want to take bets on how long...
Longer than it took for someone to jump in here and make an off topic politically based comment.
- Well, you have to make the bets before the thing happens, so….
- He just wrote what we were all thinking.
  C'mon: the halfwits were eating HORSE DEWORMER as a pandemic 'cure'. The likely head of the CDC still thinks it's a cure.
  Gallows humour is just a way of dealing with the realization where America elected a felon faster than it could prosecute him.

Sure. Ban Red Dye No. 3, but let's allow all the homeopathic bullshit we want because hey why regulate that stuff? They just give it to kids.

I agree with you, but don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
- This is barely "the good."
  A 1990 study concluded that "chronic erythrosine ingestion may promote thyroid tumor formation in rats via chronic stimulation of the thyroid by TSH." with 4% of total daily dietary intake consisting of erythrosine B.[10] A series of toxicology tests combined with a review of other reported studies concluded that erythrosine is non-genotoxic and any increase in tumors is caused by a non-genotoxic mechanism.[11]
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythrosine#Safety
  Humans are not rats and no one is eating that much Red Dye No. 3 a day.
At least homeopathic anything is not directly harmful in the context of ingesting it, because it contains no active ingredient.
It's only harmful in that people don't understand that it's bullshit and therefore believe that it works, and might skip actual effective treatment for whatever their ailment is in favor of cheaper (and totally ineffective) homeopathic whatever-the-hell. For that reason it should at least be regulated to the extent of having a big neon warning sticker on it that says, "This product is completely ineffective and accomplishes nothing other than setting your money on fire."
I'm all for outlawing it from a consumer advocacy standpoint because it's a scam, but otherwise it's just expensive water.
- Except that it's ridiculously unregulated and it's not even actually "homeopathic" half the time, it contains actual pharmaceuticals or even just straight up poison.
  Here's an example. It took ten years for the FDA to get this company to do a voluntary recall despite their product giving babies seizures.
  https://www.statnews.com/2017/04/13/homeopathy-tablets-recall/
  I'm amazed people aren't aware of this stuff.
Homeopathic bullshit has no negative effect, it's literally just water and sugar. As long as they are not prescription pills, the FDA does not regulate them because they are merely false advertising and not actually dangerous.
- When done properly, it is just water. Hyland made some homeopathic teething tablets about a decade ago that used too much belladonna which killed several kids and paralyzed a few more because they did not dilute it to nothing.
- That's like saying fire extinguishers filled with nothing but air are just false advertising. People have died taking these "treatments" when actual professional medical care would have saved them.
- That’s the way homeopathic nonsense is supposed to work. Unfortunately bullshit like this isn’t regulated properly so it often ends up being dangerous.
  https://www.fda.gov/drugs/understanding-over-counter-medicines/some-homeopathic-products-may-put-you-risk
  https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/09/fda-warns-of-life-threatening-infections-from-contaminated-nasal-spray/
  https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/standard-homeopathic-company-issues-nationwide-recall-hylands-baby-teething-tablets-and-hylands-baby
- They are actually dangerous in the sense that people believe they are buying medicine when they are not, and therefore do not receive proper, actual life saving treatment.
- Homeopathy convinces people to take a mixture that has no active ingredient instead of one that can affect what they're sick with. If it's a cold, eh whatever. If it's cancer, that's incredibly dangerous.

They have until 2027?

Lmao, we know this is bad but what's another 2yrs going to hurt...

If the ban was effective immediately a bunch of things would have to be pulled from shelves and that would impact everything from Acetaminophen to Maraschino cherries to some vegetarian faux-meats. There's over 9,000 (lol) products across a wide number of industries that use Red 3.
Your comment prompted me to lookup when red 3 started to be used in food, but I couldn't find anything. Can't find who discovered it or when it was discovered either, weird. (There are claims but none with a credible source)
- According to Material History Review (Fall 1994) it was discovered in 1876 by Adolf Kussmaul. No clue who first used it in food, corporations weren't big fans of telling us what was in food back then.
- Red #3 was invented by Red Foreman, obviously. It's named after him.
We know it causes cancer in rats, but we have to think about the shareholders!
- Shareholders are such scumbags.
- There is no evidence that it causes cancer in shareholders.

MOD: In light of reports related to homeopathy:

There is a studied and demonstrated harm associated with homeopathy. However, claims made in ignorance of this will not be removed as misinformation at this time.

Invest in BEETS!! Get in on the GROUND FLOOR before BEET STONKS go BBRRRRRRR!!!1!one1!! 📈 🤑 🚀 🌕

BELOW the ground floor!
- And is there a Lemmy equivalent to pre-2021 wallstreetbets?

Who numbers all these dyes anyway?

No. 2
- Who does No. 2 work for?
Interesting question... After a small amount of research.
The FDA in the US and the INS globally. The number is just a sequential identifier, i.e., red #3 was approved before red #5.
- EU too. It's E127 there.

Do Red40 next!

I puked anytime I ate anything with #40 in it as a child. I wasn't about to let that get between me and red licorice though so I got over it as a teenager! 😅
I hope they get rid of #40 as well
- Got a buddy that does the same thing as a 30+ adult.
  100% makes him sick Everytime. I'd never heard of it until I met him.

“the link between the dye and cancer does not occur in humans”

So just because it’s carcinogenic in rats means it’s banned. But sure, let’s keep selling cigarettes. This is just a big joke.

It's a question of risk vs reward, not risk alone. I don't imagine many would care if their candies look different, but if you take away cigarettes, you're going to get a riot and lots of people going to the black market.
Cigarettes are fairly easy and obvious to avoid, disregarding the occasional whiff when you're out and about.
Food additives less so, especially when in it's in a lot of different foods and manufacturers may change previously "safe" formulas.