Consumer Reports is pushing for the removal of Red Dye No. 3 from multiple Peeps candies — saying the ingredient is a carcinogen — days ahead of Easter and peak Peep season.
Several Peeps products — including Pink Marshmallow Chicks, Easter Marshmallow Pink Bunnies and Easter Marshmallow — contain the ingredient, which has been debated for decades over its potential to cause cancer in animals, according to the Yonkers-based consumer advocacy organization.
Multiple organizations, scientists and lawmakers around the U.S. have been pushing for a ban on the color additive from food, which the Food and Drug Administration prohibited for use in cosmetic products in 1990.
“Virtually every human carcinogen that we know causes cancer in humans — the vast majority of them have also been shown to cause cancer in animals,” said Michael Hansen, a senior scientist for Consumer Reports.
Just Born Quality Confections, which manufactures Peeps, defended it and other products through a spokesperson, saying the company was aligned with FDA regulations and that it strives to inform consumers about ingredients through details on its packaging and websites.
An FDA spokesperson said the agency is weighing a petition filed by a slate of organizations last year to ban the artificial coloring ingredient from food.
“The FDA is actively reviewing a petition filed for FD&C Red No. 3,” said agency spokesperson Veronika Pfaeffle in a statement.
California lawmakers have introduced legislation aiming to rid all food products of Red Dye No. 3. The synthetic coloring’s link to cancer has so far only been established by research through high doses in animals in studies and not humans, which has led to criticism from trade groups opposed to an industrywide ban.
Those who would ban Red Dye No. 3 say it also flouts the spirit of federal regulations geared toward public health, pointing to a clause that bars the approval of any food additive found to cause cancer in animals or…
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