After decades of debate, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a ban on Red Dye No. 3, a synthetic food coloring that’s been linked to cancer in male lab rats. The decision comes after a petition filed in 2022 by advocacy groups,

FDA officials have telegraphed the decision for months. While the agency has long said that it did not think evidence of Red 3 causing cancer applied to humans, officials said their hand was forced by a law requiring the agency to pull additives that are cancerous in animals.

The controversial artificial food dye Red 3 was banned Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration nearly 35 years after the dye was removed from cosmetics due to cancer concerns. Dr. Eric Ascher, family medicine physician at New York City's Northwell Lenox Hill Hospital,