[HN] The data and puzzling history behind California's new red food dye ban

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Today, it is found in thousands of food products—from Brach's Candy Corn and varieties of Nerds, Peeps, Pez, candy canes, Fruit by the Foot, to Entenmann's Little Bites Mini Muffins, Betty Crocker mashed potatoes, fruit cocktail, PediaSure nutritional shakes, and MorningStar Farm's veggie bacon strips.

Even though the risk appeared small, the agency's decision hinged on the Delaney Clause of 1958, which requires the FDA to ban any food additive that is shown to induce cancer in humans or animals.

At that point, the dye was only "provisionally" listed for external use, and the industry needed to conduct scientific studies to prove to the FDA that it was safe in those products, too.

But, in 1977, as that work was ongoing, the FDA revised its requirements, forcing the industry to conduct new chronic toxicity studies—the studies that would show increased rates of cancer in rats.

Between 1977 and 1990, the FDA granted the industry numerous extensions to produce scientific data showing red dye No.

This revealed statistically significant higher incidences of male rats with thyroid tumors and cancers, the FDA concluded.

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