Are Food Dyes Being Phased Out? Reading Your Labels

The email from your best café account is one line: "Are food dyes being phased out, or banned?" Behind it is a headline they read on their phone. They want an answer they can pass on to their own customers, and they want it in writing.

If you buy ingredients for a food business, you have seen three versions of this story by now. One says every bright color is going. One says only red. One says it already happened. They cannot all be right.

Here is the real trouble. One short word is doing the work of three different actions, and it fits only one of them. Put that word in writing and get it wrong, and you have said something false about food you sold. The fix is to know the three actions, and to read the labels you already own.

Food dyes being phased out: nine colorings, three actions

Start with the list, because the list is the story. Count Red No. 3 and the April 22, 2025 release names nine colorings in all. Each one sits in a different kind of action, and at the time of the release only the first row was a finished revocation.

The Red No. 3 date is the food deadline; the order itself was issued on January 15, 2025. The six-dye target comes from the release's own words, "by the end of next year", counted from April 2025. All nine sit in part 74 of the federal color rules, the half for colors subject to certification. That fact turns out to be the key to reading a label, so hold on to it.

Why "banned" is the wrong word for six of them

Could you put the sentence in a letter and defend it? "Red 40 is illegal" is a claim about the law, and the April 2025 release does not say it. "The FDA said it would work with industry to move away from Red 40 by the end of 2026" is a claim about a program, and that is what the release says.

Dates work differently too. The Red No. 3 order came with deadlines written into it, and the FDA says product made before the effective date may still be on the market after it. The six-dye action, as announced, is a target the agency set while working with industry. If you plan stock around either one, those are two different plans. Rules move, so check the FDA's color additive pages for anything newer before you write.

The release also said the FDA is fast-tracking review of calcium phosphate, Galdieria extract blue, gardenia blue, butterfly pea flower extract and other natural alternatives. Be careful with the word natural. It is not a legal grade. Under federal law, a color additive needs FDA approval before it goes into food, wherever it comes from. The full list of actions is in the HHS and FDA synthetic dye announcement.

Red No. 3, the one that really was revoked

Red No. 3 is the case people mean when they say a dye was banned, and for food it is accurate. The order rests on the Delaney Clause, a 1960 law that bars the FDA from authorizing a color additive found to cause cancer in humans or animals. The finding was in male laboratory rats exposed to high levels, through a hormonal mechanism that occurs in male rats.

Erythrosine, as Red No. 3 is also called, often gets garbled in the retelling. In the agency's own words, there is "no evidence showing FD&C Red No. 3 causes cancer in humans". Read the whole note on the Erythrosine page from the FDA. We walk through every date in is Red Dye 3 banned.

Reading your labels for food dyes

Now the useful part. A federal labeling rule says a color additive subject to certification must be declared by its name. The FDA's consumer guide gives the example: FD&C Blue No. 1, or the short name, Blue 1. Colors that are exempt from certification may be grouped as "artificial color" or "color added".

So if any of the nine colorings is in a packaged food, the label has to name it. You do not need a lab to find them. You need the ingredient list, and a minute per item.

Exempt does not mean less regulated. The FDA says both kinds, subject to certification or exempt from it, must meet the same safety standard. Mica-based pearlescent pigment, the shimmer in most luster dust, is specifically listed under 21 CFR 73.350, which names its own food categories and writes limits for lead, arsenic and mercury into the rule. Our guide to what color additives are in edible glitter covers both halves of the system.

Checks three and four come from the Bakers advisory on non-edible decorations from the FDA, which also says companies that make edible glitters and dusts are required by law to list ingredients on the label. Our summary of the advisory for commercial bakers takes it line by line.

A label read is a screen, not proof. An ingredient list can name a color additive that is not cleared for the food it is going into. For the next step, our supplier documentation guide lists what to ask for, and the edible glitter label checklist goes through a jar label one line at a time.

The question gets asked at the dessert table. The answer starts on the jar label, not in the headline.

The four-sentence reply to your customer

Back to the café email. You do not need to be a regulator to answer it. You need four sentences, each one true to the FDA's own pages.

Sentence four is the one that settles people, so make sure you can send it. Keep a folder with the declaration for every colored item you buy, so the reply takes minutes, which means your customer hears from you before they hear from another headline. Amazon's category data says about two-thirds of negative reviews about ingredients are about missing information, not scary ingredients.

Keep two things out of the reply. Do not use "banned" for the six dyes. And do not claim FDA approval for any finished decoration. The FDA lists color additives; it does not approve finished glitter, icing or cake.

Who should NOT act on this news

Three kinds of reader can stop here. First, a home baker with a few jars in the cupboard. Nothing in either action is a recall, and nothing tells you to throw anything away. Read the ingredient list the way you read any label. Our page on whether edible glitter is safe to eat is the better read for you.

Second, a business that already keeps a declaration on file for every colored item. This news changes your paperwork, not your practice. Third, anyone hoping for a list of brands to avoid. A news story about a class of dyes is not a test of any one jar, and the jar's own label is where that answer starts.

In the April 2025 dye news, only Red No. 3 already carried a revocation order; six other dyes were put on a phase-out the FDA described as working with industry.

Where to start this week

Pull the label for every colored item you buy and put the declarations in one folder. Then write your four sentences once, save them, and send them the next time the question lands.

A footnote, since this is a glitter company's page. MONÉGASQUE has shipped over 400,000 orders across the US, Canada and the UK. Our 15 g jars include the silver luster dust. For the ingredient declaration of any of our jars, or any document question, ask our team through the contact page.

Food dye questions buyers ask

Sources: HHS and FDA, "HHS, FDA to Phase Out Petroleum-Based Synthetic Dyes in Nation's Food Supply", April 22, 2025, re-read 5 Oct 2026.

FDA, "FD&C Red No. 3", re-read 5 Oct 2026.

FDA, "Color Additives Questions and Answers for Consumers", content current as of 14 Dec 2023.

FDA, "FDA Advises Home and Commercial Bakers to Avoid Use of Non-Edible Food Decorative Products", content current as of 4 Jan 2018.

Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, parts 73 and 74 and section 101.22(k). Amazon category review data on ingredient complaints, directional.